capacitance and resistance - union college（电容和电阻-联合学院）.pdf

Capacitance and Resistance Capacitance In the last chapter we studied charges and moving charges around in electrostatic fields. We also calculated work done in moving theses charges around. Now we will build a device useful for storing electric charge, called the capacitor. The capacitors only function is to store electric charge. A capacitor is simply two metallic plates separated by a gap, where the gap between the plates is usually filled with a material called a dielectric. What we will find is that the amount of charge that a capacitor can store is a geometric property of the capacitor. Each metallic plate stores charge of the same magnitude and of opposite sign. These capacitor plates are separated by a distance d, and because there is a separation of electric charge, a difference in electric potential exists across the metal plates. Some typical capacitor geometries are shown below. We have on the left two cylindrical plates while on the right we have two parallel plates (of arbitrary shape.) +Q -Q -Q ∆V ∆V +Q We will begin our study of capacitance by investigating the geometric properties and quantifying our results through by assigning a capacitance (a relation between the electric potential created across the plates and the amount of charge on the plates.) We will then learn how to charge and discharge a capacitor as well as calculate the amount of energy stored in a fully charged capacitor. In order to investigate how a capacitor is charged and discharged we need to study the “movement” of the electric charges in an electric circuit. The movement of the electric charges around a closed path is called the electric current. However, before we go too far, we