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A parallel plate capacitor is created when two large flat metal plates are separ

ID: 1837045 • Letter: A

Question

A parallel plate capacitor is created when two large flat metal plates are separated by a distance d. The plates are connected to a battery. The face of each plate is A_1, as seen in Figure 1: A new capacitor is formed by attaching two uncharged metal plates, each with area A2 to the capacitor as shown in Figure 2: Consider the magnitude of the electric field between the plates. When the new plates are attached, what happens to the magnitude of the electric field? E stays the same E decreases E increases There is not enough information to tell

Explanation / Answer

Here ,

as the initial capacitance is given as

C1 = epsilon_0 * A1/d

C2 = epsilon_0 * (A1 + A2)/d

as the voltage across the capacitor remains the same.

energy stored in the capacitor = 0.5 * C * V^2

as the capacitance is increased

hence ,energy stored in the capacitor ,

U increases