Capacitor Physlet-Based Curriculum

These examples of curricular material appear in Section 9.4. Follow a link on the left to go to the individual Physlet problems found in that section and several bonus problems only available on this CD. Below is a brief description of each animation.

Chapter Problems:

9.4.1: Four simulations represent parallel plate capacitors. You can click-drag and observe the electric potential.   

9.4.2: The capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor can be altered by dragging a conducting block in between the two plates 

 9.4.3:  The capacitor plates depicted above are maintained at a constant charge. 
9.4.4: Click-drag the dielectric block into the capacitor.  Observe how the electric field and the charge on the capacitor and the dielectric change when you move the dielectric.     

 

Additional Problems:

9.4.ap 1:  Click-drag the dielectric blocks, dielectric constants k1= 4 and k2 respectively, into the capacitor (charge given in mC and position given in centimeters). 9.4.ap 2:  A capacitor is made out of  a sphere and a spherical shell maintained at a constant potential difference as shown in the animation.  You may click-drag on the inner sphere to resize it.