so the greater the voltage
applied to the capacitor,
the greater the amount of
charge that can be held by
the capacitor.
Capacitance, then, is
determined by two things:
the area of the plates, A,
and the separation between
them, d. The larger
the area of the plates gets,
the more charge that can
be held on each side; the
more distance between
them, the less capacitance.Capacitance is a measure of the capacity for holding charge. The greater the
capacitance, the more charge can be stored on the plates at a given potential
difference. The capacitance of any capacitor depends only on the size, shape, and
separation of the conductors. From the definition C = Q/V, the units of C are
coulombs per volt. One coulomb per volt is renamed one farad (abbreviated F):1
C/V = 1 F.
Questions 6-7
A 10-nanofarad parallel-plate capacitor holds a charge of
magnitude 50 μC on each plate.- What is the potential difference between the plates?
- If the plates are separated by a distance of 0.885 mm, what is the
area of each plate?
Here’s How to Crack It
- From the definition, C = , we find that