Electric Potential

Dielectric
Capacitance
LEC # 05
Electric Potential
• Electric Potential (V) is defined amount of work needed to move a
unit charge from a reference point to specified point against an
electrical field.
• Describes what would happen to a charge if it
was placed in the electric field.

• This electrical potential is a property of the

system of the surrounding charges.

• It has units of Joules/Coulomb, or Volts.

Dielectric
• Dielectric, insulating material or a very poor conductor of electric
current. When dielectrics are placed in an electric field, practically no
current flows in them because, unlike metals, they have no loosely
bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material. Instead,
electric polarization occurs.

Dielectric: having the property

of transmitting electric force
without conduction; insulating.
Capacitance
• Any two conductors separated by an insulator (or a vacuum) form a
capacitor.
• The electric field at any point in the region between the conductors is
proportional to the magnitude of charge on each conductor. It follows
that the potential difference between the conductors is also
proportional to Q.
• If we double the magnitude of charge on each conductor, the charge
density at each point doubles, the electric field at each point doubles,
and the potential difference between conductors doubles; however, the
ratio of charge to potential difference does not change. This ratio is
called the capacitance ‘C’ of the capacitor.
Capacitance is a measure of the ability of a capacitor to store energy.

Value of the capacitance depends only on the shapes and sizes of the
conductors and on the nature of the insulating material between them.