Capacitors and Dielectrics

Description

Click-drag the dielectric blocks, dielectric constants k₁= 4.0 and k₂ respectively, into the capacitor (charge given in mC and position given in centimeters).   Note: There is a 1-5% intrinsic error in the calculation of charge.  

Question

What is k₂?  You can measure the electric field at any point by click-dragging.

Instructor Resources

Answer: 2.5. Use the electric field to determine the change in voltage across the plates. This orientation behaves like a capacitor in parallel. Besides a detailed calculation, what else can a student determine from looking at the animation? Well, again, students should be able to determine that k₂  < k₁.

Script Author: Mario Belloni