Question
Physics help!
Two thin conducting wires are used to connect very large conducting plates to opposite pokes of a battery.
4. Two thin conducting wires are used to connect very large conducting plates to opposite poles of a battery. Chemical reactions within the battery produce an emf E that "pushes" one electron after another onto the wire connected to the negative terminal of the battery. and "pulls" one electron after another from the wire connected to the positive terminal of the battery a. Given that positive charges repel each other and negative charges also repel each other like charges repel"), speculate about how the similarly-charged particles that accumulate on each side of the battery amange themselves on the (tiny) wires and (very large) plates. b. After the battery has worked for a while, there are a lot of extra electrons on the plate connected to the battery's negative terminal (we'll call this total electrical charge -q) and a lot of extra positive charge on the plate on the left (let's call this total electrical charge +q). How do these extra charges affect the battery's ability to push even more charge onto the plates? Will there come a time when the battery has pushed all the charge it can onto the plates? c. While the battery is charging up the plates, is there a current flowing in the wires? d. The capacitance Cof a pair of conductors (ike these two plates) is defined to be the ratio of the total charge that is on the positive conducting plate (with -e on the negative plate) and the voltage difference AV between the plates. That is, C Av. Given your answers to the other parts of this question, why do you think this quantity is called the "capacitance"?
Explanation / Answer
a) Since the potential of the battery is much greater than the potential of the plates and wires, as soon as connection is made the electrons move from a region of higher potential to a region of low potential. But they still try to arrange themselves at maximum possible distance from each other depending on the volume and the charge accumulated.
b) With accumulation of electrons the battery's ability would decrease, and it will be harder for it to push or pull more electrons as the potential difference is reduced and a time will come when no more charges will move around
c) Since electrons move. they always constitute a current in the opposite direction
d) It is called capacitance as it is the ability or capacity of the plates to store charge.