Calculating the Capacitance of a Semicircular Dielectric Capacitor

[ganondorf29]

Homework Statement

http://nplq1.phyast.pitt.edu/res/westwolf/bookauthor/Capacitors/circle.jpg

We use two circular metal plates of radius 0.55 m and thickness 8.7 mm to build a capacitor. We leave a gap of 2.5 mm between the plates and fill half of the space between the plates with a medium with dielectric constant 16.3 and leave the other half filled with air. What is the capacitance of this capacitor in units of nF?

Homework Equations

C=((eplison zero)*(dielectric constant)*(area))/2

The Attempt at a Solution

I'm not sure how to start this problem. I was thinking, maybe divide the area in half, one with the dielectric and one without it, and treat it as two separate capacitors in a series, but can that be done?

 

[Delphi51]

Sounds reasonable to me - but wouldn't it be two caps in PARALLEL?

 

[ganondorf29]

I'll try the parallel attempt first