Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance

Vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamental concepts, definitions, and units of Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance based on lecture notes.

Conservative force

A force that depends only on the initial and final position and not the path taken, such as gravitational or electrostatic forces.

Electrostatic Potential Energy

The negative of work done in bringing a charge $q$ from infinity to a given point.

Electrostatic Potential ($V$)

The negative of work done in bringing a unit positive charge from infinity to a given point ($V = \frac{W}{q}$).

Volt ($V$)

The unit of electrostatic potential, equivalent to Joule per Coulomb ($J/C$).

Equipotential surface

A surface with a constant value of potential at all points on the surface, which is always normal to the electric field at that point.

Capacitor

A system of two conductors separated by an insulator used to store electric charge and electric energy.

Capacitance ($C$)

The ratio of the charge $Q$ on a conductor to its potential $V$ ($C = \frac{Q}{V}$).

Farad ($F$)

The unit of capacitance, equivalent to One Coulomb per Volt ($C/V$).

Parallel Plate Capacitor

A capacitor consisting of two large parallel conducting plates separated by a distance $d$, with capacitance defined as $C = \frac{\epsilon_{0}A}{d}$.

Dielectric

Non-conducting substances used to increase the capacitance of a capacitor.

Non-Polar molecule

A molecule in which the centers of positive and negative charges coincide, resulting in no permanent or intrinsic dipole moment (e.g., $O_{2}$, $H_{2}$, $CO_{2}$).

Polar molecule

A molecule in which the centers of positive and negative charges are separated, giving the molecule a permanent dipole (e.g., $HCl$, $H_{2}O$).

Polarisation ($P$)

The dipole moment per unit volume of a dielectric material.

Electric susceptibility ($\chi_{e}$)

A constant for a linear isotropic dielectric that relates polarisation to the electric field ($P = \epsilon_{0}\chi_{e}E$).

Dielectric constant ($K$)

The factor by which the capacitance of a capacitor increases when the space between the plates is filled with a dielectric material ($C = KC_{0}$).

Energy Density ($u_{E}$)

The energy stored per unit volume in a capacitor, calculated as $u_{E} = \frac{1}{2}\epsilon_{0}E^{2}$.