Capacitors

Capacitors
• A capacitor is a device
which is used to store
electrical charge ( a
surprisingly useful thing
to do in circuits!).
• Effectively, any capacitor
consists of a pair of
conducting plates
separated by an insulator.
The insulator is called a
dielectric and is often air,
paper or oil.
Illustrating the action of a capacitor
Set up the circuit.
Connect the flying
lead of the capacitor
to the battery.
Connect it to the
lamp.

6V 6V, 0.003A What do you observe.

10 000μF lamp Try putting a 100Ω
resistor in series with
the lamp. What effect
does it have?
 What is happening
• When the capacitor is
connected to the battery,
a momentary current
flows.
• Electrons gather on the
+++++
plate attached to the -------
negative terminal of the
battery. At the same time
electrons are drawn from
the positive plate of the
capacitor
 What is happening
• When the capacitor is
connected to the battery,
a momentary current
flows.
• Electrons gather on the
+++++
plate attached to the -------
negative terminal of the
battery. At the same time
electrons are drawn from
the positive plate of the
capacitor
 What is happening
• When the capacitor is
connected to the
lamp, the charge has
the opportunity to
rebalance and a +++++
current flows lighting -------
the lamp.
• This continues until
the capacitor is
completely
discharged.
 While the capacitor is charging
• Although the current mA
falls as the capacitor
is charging the
current at any instant
in both of the meters +++++
is the same, showing -------
that the charge stored
on the negative plate
is equal in quantity
with the charge stored
mA
on the positive plate.
When the capacitor is fully charged
• When the capacitor is
fully charged the pd
measured across the
capacitor is equal and
opposite to the p.d. V +++++ V
across the battery, so -------
there can be no
furthur current flow.
 Capacitance
• The measure of the Q
extent to which a C
capacitor can store V
C= capacitance (unit farad (F))
charge is called its Q = the magnitude of the charge
capacitance. It is on one plate (unit coulombs (C))
defined by V = the p.d. between the plates
( unit volts (V))

Notice that in reality the total charge stored by the capacitor is

actually zero because as much positive as negative charge is
stored. When we talk about the charge stored (Q in this formula)
it refers to the excess positive charge on on the positive plate of
the capacitor.

++++++++ +Q
-------------- -Q
The effec of a resistance on the
charging and discharging
• Putting a resistor in
series with the
capacitor increases
the charging time

6V
• and increases the
2 200μF
discharging time
 Kirchoff’s second la tells us that the e.mf. Must
equal the sum of the pd’s

Vbattery = V resistor+Vcapacitor

6V Initially the capacitor is uncharged.

At this time Vcapacitor =0
And
V battery= Vresistor
 Kirchoff’s second la tells us that the e.mf. Must
equal the sum of the pd’s

Vbattery = V resistor+Vcapacitor

As the capacitor charges

Vcapacitor rises and so Vresistor falls.
From
6V Vresistor
I
R
The current through the resistor (and therefore
the whole circuit) falls
I max
Current A

Small R

Vresistor
I max 
I max
R For a large resistor the
maximum current, (which is
the initial current) is lower.
The time taken to charge the
I max capacitor is correspondingly
larger.
Large R

Time/s
 Finding the charge stored
Remember that the charge stored
on each plate is the same. Finding
the stored charge is another way of
saying finding the charge stored on
the positive plate.

Charge stored +++++++++

---------------
(Q = It)
Current/A

mA

The area under the curve

is the charge stored

Time/s
Discharging a capacitor
Here the 1 000μF capacitor is
charged from a battery and
discharged through a 100KΩ
resistor.
Try timing the discharge with a
charging potential of 3V, 4.5V
and 6V.
V Draw a current against time
graph in each case and
mA
measure the area under the
graph. This area will give you
the charge on the capacitor.
Calculate the capacitance of
the capacitor in each case
using
Q
C
V
Discharging with a constant current
If the series resistance is decreased continuously as the
capacitor is discharged it is possible to keep the current
constant while discharging the capacitor. The advantage
of this is that the charge on the capacitor is easier to
calculate.
Current/A

Q=Ixt

Time/s
 Discharging with a constant current

100kΩ
1 000μF
6V V
mA
 Exponential decay
Whether charging or discharging the
capacitor, the current time graph has
Current this particular form. It is exponential in
μA form. (The “mathematical” form of a
curve like this never actually falls to
zero though in practice it does).

Time s
 Exponential decay
The equation of the curve can be
I shown to be
t
o

II e CR
Current μA

Where C is the capacitance of the

capacitor and R is the resistance of the
FIXED series resistor
Note that the only variable on the right is t.
Time s
When t=CR 1
I  I oe
1
I   Io
So C x R is an important value e
and is known as the
e = 2.718 so 1/e = 0.368
time constant
I  0.368 I o
 Exponential decay
Io 1
Current μA

I   Io
e
I = 0.368Io

0.368Io

(0.368)2Io
(0.368)3Io
RC 2RC 3RC
Time s

The time it takes the current to fall by a factor of 1/e is a constant.

That time interval is RC the time constant
 Capacitors in parallel
The capacitors are in parallel and therefore
there is the same p.d. across each
C1
Q1
Q
from C
C2 V
Q2
Q1  C1V Q2  C2V Q3  C3V
C3
Q3 Q1  Q2  Q3  C1V  C2V  C3V
Q1  Q2  Q3  (C1  C2  C3 )V
A single capacitor which stores
as much charge (Q =Q1+Q2+Q3)
is represented by:
Q  CV
V
So C= C1+C2+C3
It follows that capacitors in parallel have a total capacitance which is equal
to the sum of their individual capacitances.
 Capacitors in series
C1 C2 C3
Q1 Q2 Q3
Q Q V3 
Q
V1  V2  C3
C1 C2 V3
V1 V2

 1 1 1 
adding V1  V2  V3  Q   
 C1 C2 C3 

 1 1 1 
i.e. V  Q    V
 C1 C2 C3 
Q
A single capacitor which has the same effect is: V
C

1  1 1 1 
So:     
C  C1 C2 C3 
Capacitors and resistors compared

capacitors resistors

Series 1 1 1 1
   R  R1  R2  R3
connection
C C1 C2 C3

Parallel 1 1 1
C  C1  C2  C3 R  
connection R1 R2 R3
 Energy and Capacitors
Work is done in moving
During charging the addition of the electrons
electrons to the negative plate
involves work in overcoming
the repulsion of electrons
already there.

In the same way removal of

+++++++ C
electrons from the positive plate ------------
involves overcoming the
attractive electrostatic force of
the positive charge on the plate
 Energy and Capacitors
Remember that the voltage V is the
work done per unit charge:
Imagine the capacitor is W
partially charged so that the V
charge on the plates is Q Q
It then acquires a little more
charge δQ.
This involves the work of Q+ Q
δQ + + + + +
moving charge δQ from ---- - V
one plate to the other. C

If δQ is very small V can be

considered unchanged in
which case
W  VQ
 Energy and Capacitors
W  VQ
Q
And as C Q+ δQ + + + + +
V ---- - V
We can substitute for V
Q C
W  Q
C
So the total work done in giving the
capacitor full charge from 0 to Qfull

Q

Q full
Q
0
C
And in the limit as δQ→0
Q full Q Q 2full
W  dQ W
0 C 2C
 Q 2full
W
2C
Writing Q fpr Qfull and making use of Q=VC
Q2
W
2C

Q2
W
Q
2
V
1 1
W  QV  CV 2
2 2

W =the energy stored by the charged capacitor (J)

Q= the charge on the plates (C)
V= the pd across the plates (V)
C = the capacitance of the capacitor (F)