Electric Field and Energy of Parallel Plate Capacitor

[XxXDanTheManXxX]

A parallel plate capictor with a plate area of 1.8 m^2 and a separation of 0.1 mm is charged to 200V.
a. what is the electric field bwt. the plates?
b. what is the energy/unit volume in the space between the plates?
c. Find the capacitance C
d. Calculate the total energy stored in this capacitor

 

[dextercioby]

What are your ideas?

Daniel.

 

[XxXDanTheManXxX]

I know how to find the capiciatnce in a parrallel but have no idea how to find out the electric field. Any help? I don't have a textbook with me so I am pretty much screwed :)

 

[whozum]

Do you know the electric field for a surface charge?

If so, a parallel plate capacitor is two charged surfaces with separation d. The field can be found by adding the field of each plate.

 

[Davorak]

Use gauss's law in intgral form. Some times called the gaussian pilbox.
$$\int \vec{E}\cdot d\vec{A} =\frac{Q_{Enclosed}}{\epsilon_0}$$
Sove for the electric field for one plate, then solve for the other plate and use vector addtion to add them together.

Use the elctric field to find the voltage and the energy density.

 

[GCT]

can't get any easier than this, simply use equations in your text.