Recent content by arun_mid

Actually Mukundpa, (nice diagram) although I can't say that your argument is incorrect, it's not a sure sign of a field outside the plates...which of course exists in reality. This field is negligible, just as the external capacitance of the plates, which, if the outer plates have charge, will...

From what I know, magnetic fields don't really have a potential energy associated with them.I didn't do much on non-conservative fields...so correct me if I'm wrong here... because a magnetic field is ONLY produced by dipoles, all work done by one pole automatically cancels out work done by the...

All right, I think I understand your idea now. I don't know how to calculate the separation distance as I haven't actually studied the full description of a parallel plate capacitor's field with fringe effects. All I know is that the plates should be kept really close, so that they can be taken...

I think the third law of motion--Every action has an equal and opposite reaction--is also incorrect, in electrodynamics.

There's no such thing as directional pressure. Let's take an example of what I think you're talking about. Let's take an ideal fluid, rotating inside a vessel at an angular speed \omega. Consider an element, at a distance x from the centre of the vessel. Let its width be dx, and its area be dA...

I just realized that in my first post, I didn't mention connecting wires, I just said that there were two plates facing each other... so anyway, if there ARE wires, I probably can't conserve charge on the plates, which is why I didn't get what antiphon predicted, although I would like some...

Well, how does the field not being zero anywhere lead to charge on outer surface of the plates being non-zero? I mean, if there were charge on the outer plates of the capacitor, then what about what I had said earlier? What's wrong there? :confused: please explain using plates of equal area...

I never said that the field outside is zero. I really have no idea about that...I said that a point INSIDE one of the plates is very close to the inner sides of the two plates. If the two plates have area A, and a charge q is stored in the capacitor, then field due to positive plate(This is due...

But can't the charges redistribute so that the charge on the outer surfaces becomes zero? What's mathematically wrong with my argument? As for nonuniform distribution, the inner plates may have slightly nonuniform distribution, however the distribution must be the same on both plates. Gauss law...

well, after seeing the link you sent, I realized that asking for a rigorous mathematical description would be a little too deep for me...I'm not actually past classical theory yet...which was why I decided not to go further with the answers given, and to stick to analogy. :wink:

actually, I'm really sorry, I made a mess of this thread. The question I asked was really not what was in my mind...and I still can't remember exactly what it was. Anyway, mukundpa, in this case, it's quite clear the charge on the outer surface of the plates is zero. Let the charge on the inner...

Thanks for all your explanations. I think I understand now.

Take two charged, moderately thick conducting plates. Suppose one has a charge +Q and the other -Q. Arrange the plates facing each other as in a capacitor. So why don't the outer surfaces of the plates have any charge? (The charge +Q, for instance, is wholly on the inner surface, the surface...

actually your explanation makes sense, except that i said that an electric field from the positive terminal pulls the electrons, and the electrons follow, like a chain. you say that repulsion from the negative terminal causes them to flow. I can understand the initial 'flow' of electrons. what...

but since the electrons move slowly, why does the circuit work so quickly? Exactly what goes on? Is it simply because they START to move that the circuit works?