In a parallel plate capacitor, if the distance between the plates is doubled while keeping the charge constant, what happens to the electric potential?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
In a parallel plate capacitor, if the distance between the plates is doubled while keeping the charge constant, what happens to the electric potential?
It doubles
It halves
It remains the same
It quadruples
The electric potential V is directly proportional to the distance d between the plates, so if d is doubled, V also doubles.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: In a parallel plate capacitor, if the distance between the plates is doubled while keeping the charge constant, what happens to the electric potential?
Solution: The electric potential V is directly proportional to the distance d between the plates, so if d is doubled, V also doubles.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand what a parallel plate capacitor is. It consists of two plates that store electric charge.
Step 2: Know that the electric potential (V) is the energy per unit charge between the plates.
Step 3: Remember that the electric potential (V) is directly proportional to the distance (d) between the plates. This means if you change the distance, the potential changes in the same way.
Step 4: If the distance (d) between the plates is doubled, it means d becomes 2d.
Step 5: Since V is directly proportional to d, if d is doubled, then V also doubles.
Step 6: Conclude that when the distance between the plates is doubled while keeping the charge constant, the electric potential also doubles.
