12: Capacitors

Worksheet 14
1. A 4E-9 F parallel plate capacitor is charged using a 12 V power supply. The distance between the plates is 3
mm.
A. What is the potential energy stored in the electric field between the plates?
B. What is the energy density between the plates?
2. Suppose for the above capacitor, the space between the plates is filled with pyrex (pyrex has a dielectric constant
κ = 4.7).
A. What is the new capacitance of this capacitor?
B. Charging this up with the 12 V battery, how much energy would be stored in this capacitor?
C. The ends of dipoles from the pyrex right at the plate and at the surface of the pyrex effectively contribute
to the “thin sheet charge” that is generating the electric field between the plates. What is this induced
charge?
Hint: To achieve a 12 V drop as we move across the capacitor, we must be moving through an electric
field that must be the same as with the original capacitor without the pyrex! The difference here is that
the charge creating this same field is the sum of the charge on the plate and the induced charged from the
dipole ends at the pyrex surface.

3. A parallel-plate air-filled capacitor having area 50.0 cm2 and plate spacing 1.30 mm is charged to a potential
difference of 880 V. Find (a) the capacitance, (b) the magnitude of the charge on each plate, (c) the stored
energy, (d) the electric field between the plates, (e) the energy density between the plates.

4. In the figure a potential difference V = 120 V is applied across a

capacitor arrangement with capacitances C1 = 8.86 µF, C2 = 4.70 µF,
and C3 = 5.16 µF. What are (a) charge q3 , (b) potential difference
V3 , and (c) stored energy U3 for capacitor 3, (d) q1 , (e) V1 , and (f)
U1 for capacitor 1, and (g) q2 , (h) V2 , and (i) U2 for capacitor 2?

5. A capacitor is charged until its stored energy is 9.77 J. A second capacitor is then connected to it in parallel. If
the charge distributes equally, what is the total energy stored in the electric fields?

6. A 1.9 µF capacitor and a 6.0 µF capacitor are connected in parallel across a 240 V potential difference. Calculate
the total energy in joules stored in the capacitors.
7. What capacitance is required to store an energy of 13 kWh at a potential difference of 920 V?

8. In the figure two parallel-plate capacitors (with air between the plates)
are connected to a battery. Capacitor 1 has a plate area of 2.0 cm2 and
an electric field (between its plates) of magnitude 2400 V/m. Capac-
itor 2 has a plate area of 0.83 cm2 and an electric field of magnitude
1900 V/m. What is the total charge on the two capacitors?

9. In the figure find the equivalent capacitance of the combination. As-

sume that C1 = 10.6 µF, C2 = 4.00 µF, and C3 = 3.90 µF

1
10. In the figure find the equivalent capacitance of the combination. As-
sume that C1 = 8.40 µF, C2 = 7.43 µF, and C3 = 5.12 µF

11. Given a 6.9 pF air-filled capacitor, you are asked to convert it to a capacitor that can store up to 9.2 µJ with
a maximum potential difference of 586 V. What must be the dielectric constant of the material that you should
you use to fill the gap in the air capacitor if you do not allow for a margin of error?

12. In the figure how much charge is stored on the parallel-plate capacitors
by the 16.0 V battery? One is filled with air, and the other is filled
with a dielectric for which κ = 1.70; both capacitors have a plate area
of 9.20E-3 m2 and a plate separation of 6.20 mm.

1 Answers
1. (a) 2.88E-7 J (b) 7.08E-5 J.m3
2. (a) 18.8nF (b) 1.35E-6 J (c) -1.776E7 C
3. (a) 34.05 pF (b) 29.97 nC (c) 13.19E-6 J (d) 676923 N/C (e) 2.02 J/m3
4. (a) 619.2µC (b) 120 V (c) 0.037152 J (d) 368.51 µC (e) 41.59 V (f) 0.00766 J (g) 368.51 µC (h) 78.41 V (i)
0.0144 J
5.4.885 J
6. 0.22752 J
7. 110.59 F2
8. 5.644 pC
9. 6.804 µF
10. 3.87 µF
11. 7.7656
12. 5.67E-10 C

Page 2