Physics Notes

Capacitance
Definition: A measure of the capacity of a circuit to store charge.

The capacitator

- A capacitator is a device which stores electric potential energy in the form of a separation of
some charge.
- The simplest capacitors are made up of two metal plates, separated so that charge is unable
to flow between them. When a battery is connected to the plates, electrons are removed
from one plate leaving it positive, and moved to the other plate, making it negative. When
this happens, we say that it is charged.
- The region between the plates has an electric field, and therefore there is a potential
difference between the plates. For the case of plates separated by a vacuum, we use the
formula:

1 Q
E=
ε0 A
Where E is the electric field strength, A is the area of each plate, Q is the magnitude of the charge on
each plate, and e0 is a constant know n as the permittivity of free space, value 8.854x10^-12

- The field between two charged parallel plates is uniform.

- If the plates are separated by distance d, the potential distance V is V = ED, and so E = V/d
- This is also equal to the above equation
- For particular arrangements of plates, the values of A and d don’t change. Therefore there is
a fixed quanitity that we can associate with a particular arrangement of plates, and this
relates the amount of charge that is stored on the plates to the potential difference between
them. This is the capacitance, symbol C, which can be defined by the formula C = Q/V.
- The SI unit for capacitance is the farad, symbol F.

Energy stored in a capacitator

- In order to charge a capacitator, work must be done in order to separate the charges.
- To start with, the plates have no charge and no potential difference. Later on, the plates
carry charge Q’ and the potential difference V’ = Q’/C.
- Once the plates have charge, it becomes more difficult to force further charge onto each
plate, as the charge it already contains repels any more.
- To add charge Q it will take work input

' Q'
∆ W =V ∆ Q= ∆Q
C
Provided that Q is sufficiently small that V’ is essentially unchanging while the new charge is
added to the plates.

- The total work done to get a final charge of Q onto each plate will be the sum of all the little
bits of work required to add on to each little bundle of charge.
Capacitators in series and in parallel

- In diagrams, capacitors are generally represented by two parallel lines

- When capacitors are parallel, the wire connecting the positive plates together ensures that
they are at the same potential, and the same goes for the negative plates.
- Series’ are the same as resistors

RC Circuits
Definition: A circuit with both a resistor and a capacitator.

The RC Circuit

- Consider an example with a resistor and a capacitor are in a series with a battery in the
middle. The capacitor is initially uncharged. When the switch is closed, connecting both to
the battery, charge builds up on the plates of the capacitor until the potential difference
across is reaches the maximum value possible, meaning that it is fully charged.
- The resistor affects the time that it takes to reach full charge.

Discharging RC Circuits

- Consider the above, with the capacitor fully charged but now disconnected from the battery,
and the switch open. Currently there is no net charge to the circuit; there are equal and
opposite amounts of charge on the capacitor plates. When the switch closes, a current will
flow around the circuit to neutralize the charge on the capacitor plates. i.e electrons will
flow from the negative plate through the resistor in order to negate the positive charge on
the other plate.
- The speed at which this happens is limited by the size of the current that can flow through
the circuit. Said size can be determined using Kirchoff’s laws, and depends on the resistance
of the resistor and the potential difference across the resistor.
- We can use Kirchoff’s laws to determine the time dependence of the discharging current in
this circuit. To begin with we add up the potential drops around the circuit with the switch
closed. The voltage loop rule tells us that the sum of these potential drops will be 0. At any
given moment the current I flowing through the resistor is going to be I = Vresistor/R.
- The potential difference across the capacitor is replace to the capacitance C and the charge
q by q = CVcapacitor
- The current I at any given time is related to the change in the amount of charge leaving the
capacitor. We can calculate this using the formula I = q/t

Pressure
Definition: A measure of the force exerted on a certain area.

❑
❑

Where P is the pressure, F is the force applied, and A is the area the force is applied to.
 - Pressure is a scalar quantity, i.e having only magnitude, not direction
- The SI unit of pressure is the pascal, symbol Pa. This corresponds to a pressure of one
Newton of force per square metre.

Temperature and the Zeroth Law

Definition of temperature: A measure of how hot or cold something is.

Thermal equilibrium

- When two systems are in equilibrium, they are balanced in some way; when in thermal
contact, they exchange energy until they reach a state of equilibrium, at which point no
further energy is exchanged.
- Zeroths law of thermodynamics states that if two systems (A and B) are in thermal
equilibrium, and a third system (C), is in equilibrium with A, then C is also in equilibrium with
B.
- The property that the systems share is temperature.

Thermal energy

- Thermal energy is the internal energy of an object due to the kinetic energy from its atoms
and molecules moving.
- The thermal energy of an object depends on the number and composition of molecules
within it, as well as the objects temperature. This is due to the fact that at higher
temperatures the atoms and molecules of an object move faster, causing the kinetic energy,
and therefore the thermal energy, to be higher.
- When two objects at different temperatures are placed in contact, collisions occur between
the molecules of the two objects. In these collisions, some thermal energy is transferred.
This is known as heat transfer.

Gas laws
Charles’ law

- When a fixed quantity of gas is held at constant pressure, it is found that the volume of the
gas increases linearly with temperature, as shown in the equation V = aT, where V is the
volume of gas, T is the absolute temperature, and a is the proportionality constant.

Boyles Law

- When a fixed quantity of gas is held at a fixed temperature, it is found that the pressure is
inversely proportional to volume, so doubling the pressure with halve the volume. This is
shown in the formula P = b/V, where P is the absolute pressure and V is the volume. “b” is
the proportionality constant.

Ideal Gas law

- We can combine Charles’ and Boyle’s laws together into the following equation:
 Where P is the pressure, V is the volume, T is the absolute temperature and c is a
proportionality constant.

- “c” depends only on the number of gas molecules present. Because of this, we can write c as
c = Nk, where N is the number of gas molecules and k is a proportionality constant.
- “k” is a universal constant called Boltzmann’s constant. Its value is 1.381 x 10^-23
- Substituting this into the original law, the ideal gas law is as follows:

- It is known as “ideal” as it is only strictly accurate when the gas is of a very low density and
high temperature

Phase and Temperature Changes

Phases Changes
- For real gases the ideal gas equation no longer holds when the interaction between the
atoms or molecules becomes significant. This occurs when the temperature is low and the
density is high.
- When density is high molecules are closer together.
- When temperature is low, the potential energy associated with the attractive force between
the molecules can no longer be ignored compared to their kinetic energy; the attraction
becomes significant and the behavior of a gas deviates from ideal gas behavior.
- Chemically simple substances are typically found in one of three different states of matter:
solid, liquid or gas.
- Other states exist under extreme circumstances, such as plasma, which is ionized gas and
which exists at high temperatures, and the Bose-Einstein condensate state, which requires
extremely low temperatures.
- Solids have definite shapes and volumes. Molecules are not free to move, only vibrate.
- Liquids have fixed volumes (at particular pressures and temperatures) but the shape is
determined by its container. The molecules are usually further apart than in solids.
- In gases molecules are far apart on average, and the gas has its shape and volume fixed by
the container.
- Thermal energy is required to change the phase of a substance. To turn a solid into a liquid
the bonds that hold the molecules in place can only be broken with the addition of energy.
Similarly, energy is required to turn a liquid into a gas, etc. This is called latent heat.
- The amount of energy required to transform a substance from one phase to another
depends on what the substance is, as this determines the strength of the molecular forces
involved, and on how much of the substance there is. The amount of heat Q is given by the
formula

Where m is the mass and L is the latent heat of phase change

 - Latent means hidden, and is used because during the phase of change, when the substance
exists in both phases simultaneously, the temperature does not change.
- The value of L differs for each type of phase change, and has some dependence on
temperature.
- Lf is the heat of fusion, the energy required to change 1kg of the substance from solid to
liquid.
- Lv is the heat of vaporization, which is the energy needed to change 1kg of the substance
from liquid to vapour.
- Some substances can go straight from solid to vapour, in which chase Ls is used.
- The specific heat capacity is the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of 1kg
of a particular substance by 1K.

Heat Transfer
Conduction

- Heat conduction is the transfer of thermal energy from an object at higher temperature to
one at lower temperature via contact.
- The two objects can be in direct contact, or there may be a medium separating them.
- The rate of heat transfer through a material will depend on its microscopic structure. Metals,
which are good conductors of electricity, are also good conductors of thermal energy as the
electrons are able to move freel from atom to atom, carrying thermal energy.
- Materials which are poor electrical conductors such as plastics, wood and glass also tend to
be poor conductors of heat.
- The thermal conductivity (symbol k) is the property of the material that tells us how readily
heat is conducted through it.
- The thickness of the material also affects the rate of energy transfer, as does the cross-
sectional area; more area means more molecules in contact, and more thickness means
more molecules to pass the energy through.
- A greater temperature difference also means the heat will transfer at a higher rate.

∆ Q kA ∆ T
= =h conduction A ∆ T
∆t d
Where Q/t is the rate of heat transfer by conduction, k is the thermal conductivity of the material, d
is the thickness of the material, A is the cross sectional area and T is the temperature difference
between he surfaces separated by thickness d.

Coefficients of heat transfer

- The coefficient of heat transfer, h, has been introduced to make it easier to combine the
effects of various heat transfer mechanisms, and to deal with more than one material layer.
- It tells us how rapidly heat is being transferred per square metre of surface area, when there
is a 1K temperature difference.
- To work out the rate of heat transfer we multiply the coefficient of heat transfer (h-value) by
the surface area and by the appropriate temperature difference.
 - For the h-layer, to use an example, for a house the h-value could be for a single insulation
layer, or it might be a total h-value that takes into account several insulation layers as well as
heat loss by convection and radiation.
- The h-value used must match the correct temperature difference. If the h-value is for
conduction through a single layer, such as a woolen coat, then the corresponding
temperature difference is the difference between the outer surface of the coat and the inner
surface.
- If instead the h-value included conduction from the persons core through their tissue and
clothing, the temperature difference to use would be the persons core temperature minus
the air temperature.

Convection

- Heat transfer by fluid convection occurs as a result of the bulk motion of a fluid. For
example, natural convective transfer occurs as a resut of temperature related density
differences.
- A fluid that is heated becomes less dense, and hence more buoyant.
- Forced convection happens when the fluid motion is caused by an external agent, such as a
fan.

Radiation

- All objects radiate energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation, with the rate and the
frequency range being determined by temperature. Radiative heat transfer is especially
important for the energy balance within the human body.

Thermodynamics and the Body

- The first law of thermodynamics is a statement of conservation of energy. A system may be
heated, cooled, have work done on it or do work on other objects. These may change the
internal energy of the system.
- For a stationary system which can exchange energy but not matter with its surroundings,
this change is equal to the energy transferred to the system as heat, less the energy
transferred from the system to external agents on which the system does work.
-