Figure 115.
As you can imagine, the equipotential lines are evenly spaced and parallel to one another in the case of a uniform electric field and parallel conducting plates. In such a case, the voltage potential at the positive plate will be the highest and the voltage potential at the negative plate will be at the lowest.
CAPACITORS A capacitor is a device that is used to store electric charge. Capacitors do a great deal in electric systems by filtering static in radio reception and will store energy in heart defibrillators. These commercial capacitors will have two conducting parts that are close together but do not touch. Often, an insulator is used between the two plates in order to create the separation. While the capacitor’s overall charge is, of course, zero, there will be split of charge between two conducting plates. A battery can be used to charge the capacitor into positive and negative plates. The amount of charge that can be stored depends on the capacitor’s size and on the voltage applied. The electric field strength is directly proportional to the overall charge of Q. The greater the charge applied by a battery, the greater the amount of charge it can hold.
247
