Question about the permitivity of free space (from OCR paper)

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the absolute permittivity of a dielectric material in a capacitor setup, specifically addressing the value of 2.16 x 10^-11 F/m. Participants clarify that the constant ε₀ (8.85418782 x 10^-12 F/m) is not used due to the presence of an insulator between the plates. The variable A refers to the area of one capacitor plate, not the combined area of both plates. The relative permittivity (εᵣ) is calculated to be approximately 2.4, which aligns with expected values for common dielectric materials.

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bonbon22
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Homework Statement
A capacitor of capacitance 7.2pF consists of two parallel metal plates separated by an
insulator of thickness 1.2mm. The area of overlap between the plates is 4.0 × 10−4m2.
Calculate the permittivity of the insulator between the capacitor plates.
Relevant Equations
capacitance = Eo Er A /d
the answer is 2.16*10^-11
what i don' t understand about the question is why did they not use the constant Eo 8.85418782 × 10-12
in this case as there is a insulator occupying the area inbetween does that mean then their is no free space ??
Also in this equation the variable A is the area of each capacitor plate or both together ?
They mentioned "area of overall" but I am not sure what they mean by this.

thank you if you reply.
 
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## \epsilon_r ## is the relative permittivity, but they are looking for the absolute permittivity which is the product ## \epsilon_r \epsilon_o ##. ## \\ ## For the area, it is simply the area of one face plate. ## \\ ## And the entire region between the plates is filled with a dielectric material=(like a plastic, etc). If you compute ## \epsilon_r ##, I think you get something like 2.4, which is reasonable.
 
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