Capacitance

ü Energy in Capacitors
ü Capacitors in Series
ü Capacitors in parallel
What are Capacitors?
Parallel plate Capacitors
Capacitors are energy storage devices which have the ability to
store an electrical charge across its plates.
A capacitor consists of two metal plates separated by a
dielectric. The dielectric can be made of many insulating
materials such as air, glass, paper, plastic etc.
The higher the value of capacitance, the more charge the
capacitor can store.

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What are Capacitors?

Charging Capacitors
To move charge onto the plates of a capacitor, it must be connected to a
voltage supply.

The negative terminal of the supply pushes charge −𝑄 onto one plate,
making it negatively charged. The positive terminal of battery pulls charge
− 𝑄 from the other plate, leaving it positively charged with charge +𝑄.
The current stops when capacitor is ‘fully charged’ and the potential
difference (p.d.) across the capacitor is equal to the electromotive force
(e.m.f.) of the supply.
The two plates store equal and opposite charges, the total charge on the
capacitor is zero. Hence, it is better to say that the capacitor stores energy.

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 What are Capacitors?

Capacitance

The capacitance of a capacitor is the charge stored on one plate per unit of potential difference between the plates.
𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝑸
𝑪𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 = 𝐎𝐑 𝑪=
𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑽
where Q is the magnitude of the charge on each of the capacitor's plates and V is the potential difference across it the
capacitor.
Rearranging the equation 𝑸 = 𝑪𝑽. This equation shows the amount of charge stored depends on the voltage across the
capacitor and its capacitance.

The unit of capacitance is the farad, F. 𝟏 𝑭 = 𝟏 𝑪 𝑽!𝟏

Capacitors usually have their values marked in picofarads (pF), nanofarads (nF) or microfarads (µF) since farad is a large unit

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Energy stored in Capacitors
The charging process can be considered as a separation of positive and
negative charges. At first, the energy required to do this is minimum, but as
charging continues, more and more work must be done to add more charge
against the repulsion of what is already there. Thus the potential of the plates
increases, and the charging process becomes slower and slower; it ceases
altogether when the potential difference between the plates is equal to the
potential difference of the power supply.
The area under a graph of p.d. against charge is equal to work done. Hence
the work done in charging a capacitor to a particular p.d. is given by:
𝟏
𝑾 = 𝑸𝑽
𝟐
substituting 𝑸 = 𝑪𝑽 into the above equation gives:
𝟏 𝟐 𝟏 𝑸𝟐
𝑾 = 𝑪𝑽 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑾=
𝟐 𝟐 𝑪

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 Total Capacitance

Capacitance in parallel
Two capacitors connected in parallel have the same p.d. across them, but different
amounts of charge.
The total charge is given by the sum of these:
𝑄! + 𝑄" = 𝑄#$#%&
𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑄 = 𝐶𝑉 𝐶! 𝑉 + 𝐶" 𝑉 = 𝑄#$#%&

(𝐶! +𝐶" )𝑉 = 𝑄#$#%&

𝑄#$#%&
= 𝐶! + 𝐶"
𝑉
𝑪𝑻𝑶𝑻𝑨𝑳 = 𝑪𝟏 + 𝑪𝟐
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 Total Capacitance

Capacitance in Series
Capacitors connected in series store the same charge, but they have different p.d.s across them.
The total p.d is given by the sum of these:
𝑉! + 𝑉" = 𝑉#$#%&
𝑄 𝑄
𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑄 = 𝐶𝑉 + = 𝑉#$#%&
𝐶! 𝐶"

1 1
+ 𝑄 = 𝑉#$#%&
𝐶! 𝐶"

𝑉#$#%& 1 1
= +
𝑄 𝐶! 𝐶"

𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
= +
𝑪𝑻𝑶𝑻𝑨𝑳 𝑪𝟏 𝑪𝟐 7
 Graphs for charging of capacitor

Circuit for charging and

discharging capacitor
Switch is kept in position A Charge vs time graph P.d vs time graph Current vs time
for charging.
The gradient of this graph Q ∝ V since Capacitance As the charging process
(Position B for discharging)
gives current. Current is constant slows down over time the
reduces as the charging A fully charged capacitor rate of flow of charge i.e
process slows down acts as an open circuit. current decreases

A fully discharged capacitor

initially acts as a short
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circuit.
 Graphs for discharging of capacitor

Circuit for charging and

discharging capacitor
The capacitor Charge vs time graph P.d vs time graph Current vs time
discharges itself back
As p.d across resistor When fully charged the p.d Current though resistor
through the resistor and decreases the current across capacitor is maximum. decreases as p.d across
the plates neutralize decreases, since resistance As charge flows back the p.d
resistor decreases
is constant. decreases.

All these graphs show an exponential decrease.

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 Discharging of capacitor

Exponential decay curves

For exponential decay, the time taken to reach 37% of the
original value is always the same. The time taken for a
capacitor to discharge depends on both the capacitance and
the resistance in the circuit
• Increased resistance will mean decreased current, so
charge flows off the capacitor plates more slowly and,
therefore, the capacitor will take longer to discharge.
• increasing the capacitance will allow more charge on the
capacitor and so it will take longer to discharge.

The quantity RC is called the time constant of the circuit.

𝝉 = 𝑹𝑪
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 Discharging of capacitor

Exponential decay curves

Equations for Exponential decay of charge on a
capacitor:
𝒕
"
𝑽 = 𝑽𝟎 𝒆 𝑹𝑪

where V is the voltage at time t, 𝑽𝟎 is the initial voltage, and

RC is the time constant.
𝒕
"
𝑰 = 𝑰𝟎 𝒆 𝑹𝑪

where I is the current at Nme t, 𝑰𝟎 is the initial current

𝒕
"
𝑸 = 𝑸𝟎 𝒆 𝑹𝑪

where Q is the charge at Nme t, 𝑸𝟎 is the initial charge 11

 Capacitance of a conducting sphere
It is not just capacitors that have capacitance – all bodies have capacitance. If we consider a conducting sphere of
radius r insulated from its surroundings and carrying a charge Q it will have a potential at its surface of V, where
𝑸
𝑽=
𝟒𝝅𝜺𝟎 𝒓

𝑸
𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑪=
𝑽

𝑄
𝐶=
𝑄
4𝜋𝜀% 𝑟

𝑪 = 𝟒𝝅𝜺𝟎 𝒓
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 Uses of Capacitors

smoothing of rectified alternating currents blocking of direct currents

A fully charged capacitor behave as an open circuit

A smoothing capacitor is used to
and resist a changes in volt. When we connect a
“smooth” rectified voltages by capacitor across an AC supply source, it starts charge
and discharge continuously due to continuous change
weakening the ripple. in the supply voltage.

time delays in electronic circuits tuning circuits in radio receivers

A tuning circuit consists of an inductor and a

Capacitors may be used with a resistor to
capacitor, usually in parallel. Either the inductance of
produce a timer. When power is turned the inductor or the capacitance of the capacitor must
off the capacitor discharges its electrical be able to be varied. By varying either the capacitance
or inductance the resonant frequency of the circuit is
charge slowly.
varied.
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