UNCC Summer – 2, 2016

Phys 2102L Online Lab #4

 

Lab 04: Properties of Capacitors

You will need to run a simulation to do the lab. Answer the following questions as you work through
the lab. Write your answers in blue. (Note that we may miss your response if it doesn’t stand out )
Re-load the file in word format in Moodle/Canvas before the due date.

Lab Objective
Learn the properties of a capacitor as the plate size, gap & voltage between
the plates changes.
There are two parts in this lab:

(i) For the first part, you will explore how changing the size of a capacitor changes the amount of charge
stored by checking the electric field between the plates. You will collect data from PheT simulation.
(ii) In the second part, you will learn how the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor depends upon the
separation of the plates. From the data you will calculate the permittivity of free space, 𝜀! . You will collect
data from a video.
Read Ch 16: Sec 6, 7 and 8 for concepts.

Introduction:
Capacitors are devices to store electrical energy. It is made from two pieces of conductors separated by a
gap. One side is connected to one side of a battery, while the other side is connected to the opposite side
of the battery. Equal and opposite charges appear in each plate. The amount of charge stored in each plate
is given by: Q = C ΔV, where C is the capacitance and ΔV is the potential difference between the plates.
The electric field generated by a parallel plate capacitor is uniform. The energy stored is given by,
!
𝑈 = ! 𝐶  ∆𝑉 ! . The gap could be air, or any other dielectric material (insulator). The SI unit of capacitance
is Farad (F) . Most capacitors are in the range of micro-Farad (µF), nan-Farad (nF) or pico-Farad (pF).

(i) Simulation: Open the Capacitor Lab

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/capacitor-­‐lab  
Take a few minutes to be familiar with the simulation.
1. Turn ON the Voltmeter and the Electric Field meter in the “Introduction” tab.

Set the voltage of the battery near 1.0 V. (Note that you may have a hard time adjusting the voltage to
an exact value. It is okay to have the value to within ± 0.1V). Use the E-Field meter and move it around.

(a) Do you see any change in the value of E? If yes, where does the value change? What does it tell you
about the property of the E-Field?

v Simulation  created  by  the  Physics  Education  Technology  Project  (PhET)  c/o  The  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  http://phet.colorado.edu/  
rd
v This  lab  has  been  modified  for  the  On-­‐line  lab  course  from  “Electricity  and  Magnetism”,  3  Ed.  Sokoloff,  Laws  and  Thornton  for  UNCC  labs  
1102L/2102L.  
UNCC Summer – 2, 2016
Phys 2102L Online Lab #4
 

2
(b) Set the Area of the plates to 400.0 mm and the plate separation to 5mm. Place the probes of the
voltmeter on each plate of the capacitor and the E-Field probe in the center of the gap of the capacitor.
Change the voltage of the battery to 0V. (Note that the voltmeter is reading both the battery voltage
and the potential difference across the capacitor gap since there is no resistance in the connecting
wire.) The gap between the capacitors is air. Increase the voltage of the capacitor in 0.2V increments
(approximately). Write your data in the table below:

Table 1: Data for E vs. ΔV and for U vs. ΔV

d A Voltage ΔV E-Field E Energy Stored U
2 (V/m)
-13
X10 (J)
(mm) (mm ) (V)

1. Plot E-Field vs. Voltage. (Label the axes along with units to get full credit)

v Simulation  created  by  the  Physics  Education  Technology  Project  (PhET)  c/o  The  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  http://phet.colorado.edu/  
rd
v This  lab  has  been  modified  for  the  On-­‐line  lab  course  from  “Electricity  and  Magnetism”,  3  Ed.  Sokoloff,  Laws  and  Thornton  for  UNCC  labs  
1102L/2102L.  
UNCC Summer – 2, 2016
Phys 2102L Online Lab #4
 

(c) What does the graph show as a relationship between the voltage and electric field inside the capacitor?
Is this expected? Write the equation for parallel plate capacitors that justifies your answer.

2. Plot Energy Stored vs. Voltage. (Label the axes along with units to get full credit)

(d) What does the graph show as a relationship between the voltage and energy stored inside the
capacitor? Is this expected? Write the equation for parallel plate capacitors that justifies your answer.

2
(e) Set the area of the plates to 400.0 mm , the plate separation to 10mm and the voltage to maximum.
Switch to the “Dielectric” tab on the top. Turn ON the
“Capacitance”, “Plate Charge”, “Stored Energy”, “Electric Field Detector”. Choose the glass (dielectric
constant, κ = 4.7). The amount of dielectric between the plates is given by the “offset” tab near the
dielectric slab. Gradually insert the dielectric between the plates. Record your observation below. Make
sure to note all the quantities in the meters listed above. Describe your observation below.

v Simulation  created  by  the  Physics  Education  Technology  Project  (PhET)  c/o  The  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  http://phet.colorado.edu/  
rd
v This  lab  has  been  modified  for  the  On-­‐line  lab  course  from  “Electricity  and  Magnetism”,  3  Ed.  Sokoloff,  Laws  and  Thornton  for  UNCC  labs  
1102L/2102L.  
UNCC Summer – 2, 2016
Phys 2102L Online Lab #4
 

i) Chrage:

ii) Capacitance:

iii) Stored Energy:

iv) Electric Field:

e) Capacitance as function of dielectric constant, κ : Keep your settings from the previous experiment.
Change the dielectric material, with dielectric constant, κ, increased by 0.5 for each step until the last
dielectric is glass (κ = 4.7). Use the “custom” dielectric slider to fill in the missing values of the dielectric
constant. The dielectric slab fills the whole gap between the plates.
2
Table 2: Data for C vs. κ. Potential. V = _____ V; d = _____ mm; A = _______mm

Gap filled κ C (F) Charge Q (Coul)

-12
with X 10
-13 X 10

Custom 1

Custom 1.5

Teflon 2.1

Glass 4.7

v Simulation  created  by  the  Physics  Education  Technology  Project  (PhET)  c/o  The  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  http://phet.colorado.edu/  
rd
v This  lab  has  been  modified  for  the  On-­‐line  lab  course  from  “Electricity  and  Magnetism”,  3  Ed.  Sokoloff,  Laws  and  Thornton  for  UNCC  labs  
1102L/2102L.  
UNCC Summer – 2, 2016
Phys 2102L Online Lab #4
 

f) Plot Capacitance C vs. Dielectric constant, κ . (label your axes along with units for full credit)

g) Write the equation of capacitance for a parallel plate capacitor with a dielectric inside. Does the plot
follow the trend suggested by the equation?

(ii) Capacitance as a function of the separation between the plates of a parallel

plate capacitor:
This lab uses circular parallel plate capacitor with an air gap. The capacitance of the capacitor is given by:
𝐶 = 𝜀! 𝐴/𝑑           (1)  

𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒  𝜀! = 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦  𝑜𝑓  𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒  𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒  

𝐴 = 𝜋𝑟 ! = 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎  𝑜𝑓  𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ  𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒  

𝑑 = 𝑆𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛  𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛  𝑡ℎ𝑒  𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠  

A digital multimeter is used to measure the potential difference (voltage) between the plates. Note that there
is some “parasitic (or residual) capacitance” present in the circuit due to the multimeter as well as other
connections in the circuit. This capacitance is normally small enough that it can be ignored. For this part of
the lab, we will NOT ignore the parasitic capacitance.

v Simulation  created  by  the  Physics  Education  Technology  Project  (PhET)  c/o  The  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  http://phet.colorado.edu/  
rd
v This  lab  has  been  modified  for  the  On-­‐line  lab  course  from  “Electricity  and  Magnetism”,  3  Ed.  Sokoloff,  Laws  and  Thornton  for  UNCC  labs  
1102L/2102L.  
UNCC Summer – 2, 2016
Phys 2102L Online Lab #4
 

The capacitance measured by the multimeter is Cm and the parasitic capacitance is C0. The actual
capacitance is C = Cm – C0.
1. Watch the YouTube video given in the link below. You should be able to gather all the data needed for
this part of the lab from the video. The radius of the plate is 4.000 inches. Pay attention to units when
you calculate different values.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=31&v=SRGs7-9jVP0

2. Data Table:

(a) Capacitance without connecting to the circuit, C0 = ___________ F (don’t use this value for now).

Area A Capacitance measured , Cm Gap d between the plates 1/d

2
(m ) ( m) (m-1)
(F)

h) 3. Plot Cm as a function of 1/d in the graph below. . (label your axes along with units for full credit)
• Draw a best fit line. Extend the line all the way to y-axis.

v Simulation  created  by  the  Physics  Education  Technology  Project  (PhET)  c/o  The  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  http://phet.colorado.edu/  
rd
v This  lab  has  been  modified  for  the  On-­‐line  lab  course  from  “Electricity  and  Magnetism”,  3  Ed.  Sokoloff,  Laws  and  Thornton  for  UNCC  labs  
1102L/2102L.  
UNCC Summer – 2, 2016
Phys 2102L Online Lab #4
 

4. Find the slope of the line. Slope = ____________________

(i) Compare Eq. (1) with equation of a straight line. What does the slope represent?

(ii) From the slope of the line find the permittivity of the free space, 𝜀! .Compare your calculated value with
the accepted value of 𝜀! = 8.85×10!!" 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑙 ! /(𝑁. 𝑚! ). Give percent error.

5. Look at the y-intercept. What physical quantity does it represent? Circle the correct answer.

(a) C
(b) C0
(c) Cm

6. From the values you obtained above, do you think it is okay to ignore the residual capacitance? Justify
your answer.

v Simulation  created  by  the  Physics  Education  Technology  Project  (PhET)  c/o  The  University  of  Colorado  at  Boulder  http://phet.colorado.edu/  
rd
v This  lab  has  been  modified  for  the  On-­‐line  lab  course  from  “Electricity  and  Magnetism”,  3  Ed.  Sokoloff,  Laws  and  Thornton  for  UNCC  labs  
1102L/2102L.