Review Capacitors are devices that can store electrical energy The definition of capacitance is C Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 q V C is the capacitance q is the the charge on the capacitor Spring Semester 2005 q on one plate q on the other plate Lecture 13 V is the voltage across the plates The unit of capacitance is the farad abbreviated F 1F January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 1 1C 1V January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 Review 2 2 Review 3 The capacitance of a cylindrical capacitor is q q C 0 A d r1 is the radius of the inner cylinder A is the area of each plate d is the distance between the plates 0 is the electric permittivity of free space r2 is the radius of the outer cylinder is the charge per unit length for both cylinders Note that this result for the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor depends only on the geometry of the capacitor and not on the amount of charge or the voltage across the capacitor January 30 2005 2 0 L ln r2 r1 L is the length of the cylinder Where C The capacitance C of a parallel plate capacitor is given by Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 q is the charge on the inner cylinder q is the charge on the outer cylinder 3 January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 4 1 Spherical Capacitor Spherical Capacitor 2 Consider a spherical capacitor formed by two concentric conducting spheres with radii r 1 and r2 Let s assume that the inner sphere has charge q and the outer sphere has charge q The electric field is perpendicular to the surface of both spheres and points radially outward January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 5 January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 Spherical Capacitor 3 6 Spherical Capacitor 4 To calculate the electric field we use a Gaussian surface consisting of a concentric sphere of radius r such that r1 r r2 To get the electric potential we follow a method similar to the one we used for the cylindrical capacitor and integrate from the negatively charged sphere to the positively charged sphere V r1 r2 Edr r1 r2 q q 1 1 dr 4 0 r 2 4 0 r1 r2 Using the definition of capacitance we get C The electric field is always perpendicular to the Gaussian surface so 0 EidA 0 EA 0 E 4 r 2 q q 4 0 q 1 1 1 1 4 0 r1 r2 r1 r2 The capacitance of a spherical capacitor is then Which reduces to C 4 0 q E 4 0 r 2 January 30 2005 q V Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 7 January 30 2005 r1r2 r2 r1 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 8 2 Capacitance of an Isolated Sphere Capacitors in Circuits A circuit is a set of electrical devices connected with conducting wires We can obtain the capacitance of a single conducting sphere by taking our result for a spherical capacitor and moving the outer spherical conductor infinitely far away Capacitors can be wired together in circuits in parallel or series Using our result for a spherical capacitor with r2 and r1 R we get Capacitors in circuits connected by wires such that the positively charged plates are connected together and the negatively charged plates are connected together are connected in parallel C 4 0 R Capacitors wired together such that the positively charge plate of one capacitor is connected to the negatively charged plate of the next capacitor are connected in series January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 9 January 30 2005 Capacitors in Parallel Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 10 Capacitors in Parallel 2 Consider an electrical circuit with three capacitors wired in parallel We can consider the three capacitors as one equivalent capacitor Ceq that holds a total charge q given by q q1 q2 q3 C1V C2V C3V C1 C2 C3 V We can now define Ceq as q CeqV Each of three capacitors has one plate wired directly to the positive terminal of a battery with voltage V and one plate wired directly to the negative terminal Ceq C1 C2 C3 A general result for n capacitors in parallel is n Ceq Ci The potential difference V across each capacitor is the same i 1 If we can identify capacitors in a circuit that are wired in parallel we can replace them with an equivalent capacitance We can write the charge on each capacitor as q1 C1V q2 C2V q3 C3V January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 11 January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 12 3 Capacitors in Series Capacitors in Series 2 Consider a circuit with three capacitors wired in series Knowing that the charge is the same on all three capacitors we can write The positively charged plate of C1 is connected to the positive terminal of the battery V V1 V2 V3 The negatively charge plate of C 1 is connected to the positively charged plate of C2 We can express an equivalent capacitance C eq as The negatively charged plate of C 2 is connected to the positively charge plate of C 3 V The negatively charge plate of C 3 is connected to the negative terminal of the battery Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 q Ceq 1 1 1 1 Ceq C1 C2 C3 We can generalize to n capacitors in series n 1 1 Ceq i 1 Ci The battery produces an equal charge q on each capacitor because the battery induces a positive charge on the positive place of C 1 which induces a negative charge on the opposite plate of C 1 which induces a positive charge on C 2 etc January 30 2005 1 q q q 1 1 q C1 C2 C3 C1 C2 C3 If we can identify capacitors in a circuit that are wired in series we can replace them with an equivalent capacitance 13 January 30 2005 Example System of Capacitors Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 14 System of Capacitors 2 We can see that C1 and C2 are in parallel and that C3 is also in parallel with C1 and C2 Let s analyze a system of five capacitors We can define 3 C123 Ci C1 C2 C3 i 1 And make a new drawing If each capacitor has a capacitance of 5 nF what is the capacitance of this system of capacitors January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 15 January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 16 4 System of Capacitors 3 System of Capacitors 4 We can see that C4 and C123 are in series We can see that C5 and C1234 are in parallel We can define We can define 1 1 1 C C C1234 123 4 C1234 C123 C4 C123 C4 C12345 C1234 C5 And make a new drawing January 30 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 C123C4 C C2 C3 C4 C5 1 C5 C123 C4 C1 C2 C3 C4 And make a new drawing 17 January 30 2005 …
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