Linus Pauling
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Two 2cm x 2cm square aluminum electrodes are spaced 0.50 mm apart. The electrodes are connected to a 100 V battery. What is the capacitance?
Ok, C = Q/V = epsilon_o*A / (d)
I used 0.02^2 for A (is that correct, or do I use the area of BOTH plates?), plugged in 0.00050m for d and the value for epsilon, and I got an answer that was on the order of 10^-12, and I know the answer is in picofarads, so that looked promising. However, when I did dimensional analysis, I couldn't make sense of the units I get from this calculation.
So, am I crunching the numbers correctly, and if so (and in any case), can someone clarify how the units work out? Thanks!
Ok, C = Q/V = epsilon_o*A / (d)
I used 0.02^2 for A (is that correct, or do I use the area of BOTH plates?), plugged in 0.00050m for d and the value for epsilon, and I got an answer that was on the order of 10^-12, and I know the answer is in picofarads, so that looked promising. However, when I did dimensional analysis, I couldn't make sense of the units I get from this calculation.
So, am I crunching the numbers correctly, and if so (and in any case), can someone clarify how the units work out? Thanks!