Question

What is the area of the plates of a 2 F parallel plate capacitor, given that the separation between the plates is 0.5 cm? [You will realize from your answer why ordinary capacitors are in the range of µF or less. However, electrolytic capacitors do have a much larger capacitance (0.1 F) because of very minute separation between the conductors.]

Answer 1

Capacitance of a parallel capacitor, V = 2 F

Distance between the two plates, d = 0.5 cm = 0.5 × 10⁻² m

Capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor is given by the relation,

Where,

= Permittivity of free space = 8.85 × 10⁻¹² C² N⁻¹ m⁻²

Hence, the area of the plates is too large. To avoid this situation, the capacitance is taken in the range of µF.