Rankers Physics
Topic: Capacitors
Subtopic: Capacitor With Dielectrics

A parallel plate air capacitor of capacitance C is connected to a cell of emf V and then disconnected from it. A dielectric slab of dielectric constant K, which can just fill the air gap of the capacitor, is now inserted in it. Which of the following is incorrect ?
The energy stored in the capacitor decreases K times
The change in energy stored is \( \frac{1}{2}CV^{2}\left( \frac{1}{K}-1 \right)\)
The charge on the capacitor is not conserved
The potential difference between the plates decreases K times.

Solution:

The incorrect statement is "The charge on the capacitor is not conserved".

Here’s the explanation:

  1. Initially, when the capacitor is connected to the battery with emf
    VV
     

    , it stores a charge Qinitial=C×VQ_{\text{initial}} = C \times V 

    , where CC 

    is the capacitance of the air capacitor.

  2. After disconnecting the capacitor from the battery, the charge on the capacitor is conserved because the capacitor is isolated. No charge can flow in or out.
  3. When the dielectric slab of dielectric constant
    KK
     

    is inserted, the capacitance of the capacitor increases to K×CK \times C 

    , but the charge remains the same because the capacitor is disconnected from the battery. The charge is now distributed on the new capacitance, and the voltage across the plates decreases.

  4. The statement "charge is not conserved" is incorrect because charge is conserved in this isolated system. The only change is in the voltage across the capacitor due to the increased capacitance.

Thus, charge on the capacitor is conserved and the incorrect statement is the one claiming otherwise.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *