Name _____________________________ Score: ______

Grade level and Section _______________

HOME-BASED LABORATORY ACTIVITY 2

Do-It-Yourself Capacitor

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the activity, you should be able to:
1. Determine the equivalent capacitance of a combination of capacitors.
2. Determine the capacitance of an improvised capacitor.
3. Investigate the factors affecting the capacitance of parallel plate capacitor.

MATERIALS:
• Roll of aluminum foil
• Different pieces of four types of paper
• Transparent tape
• Multimeter
• Connecting wires
• Battery

PROCEDURES:
NOTE: Watch the video about how to construct a paper capacitor and how to measure the
capacitance using different combinations.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1hP3HKje3k&t=156s)

A. Parallel Plate Capacitor

1. Cut two 2.5 cm x 5.0 cm pieces of aluminum foil as conductors and 3.5 cm x 6.0 cm
pieces of bond paper as the dielectric material. Measure the thickness of the paper.
2. Using a transparent tape, paste the pieces of aluminum foil at the center of the
paper, one piece on each side.
3. Straighten two copper wire. Paste one on each aluminum foil.
4. Using a multimeter, measure the capacitance of the paper capacitor.
5. Change the area of the aluminum foil and the paper dielectric and measure the
capacitance.
6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 using three more types of paper, and compare the capacitance
of each. Record all your observations in table 1.

Table 1
Capacitor 1 Capacitor 2 Capacitor 3 Capacitor 3

(attached here the (attached here the (attached here the (attached here the
paper capacitor) paper capacitor) paper capacitor) paper capacitor)
 Area of foil

Type of Paper

Thickness of
the paper

Capacitance

B. Combination of Capacitors
1. Connect in series the four capacitors in Procedure A.
2. Measure the equivalent effective capacitance of the combination.
3. Compute the theoretical value of capacitance is series using the formula below:
1 1 1 1 1
= + + +
𝐶𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐶1 𝐶2 𝐶3 𝐶4

4. Repeat steps 1 and 2, but this time, connect the capacitors in parallel. Compute the
theoretical value of capacitance in parallel using the formula below:

𝐶𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝐶1 + 𝐶2 + 𝐶3 + 𝐶4

SOLUTIONS:

GUIDE QUESTIONS:
1. How does the area of the aluminum foil affect the capacitance of the paper
capacitors?
2. How does the thickness of the paper dielectric affect the capacitance of the
paper capacitors?
3. Didi you get the same capacitance using different types of paper? What do you
think accounts for the similarities or differences in capacitance?
4. What are the possible sources of error in this activity?

CONCLUSION:

DOCUMENTATION: