What happens to the electric potential energy when a capacitor is disconnected f
Practice Questions
Q1
What happens to the electric potential energy when a capacitor is disconnected from a battery and the plates are moved further apart? (2023)
Increases
Decreases
Remains the same
Becomes zero
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What happens to the electric potential energy when a capacitor is disconnected from a battery and the plates are moved further apart? (2023)
Step 1: Understand that a capacitor stores electric charge and energy.
Step 2: When a capacitor is connected to a battery, it charges up to a certain voltage and stores energy.
Step 3: Disconnect the capacitor from the battery. This means the charge on the plates stays the same.
Step 4: Moving the plates of the capacitor further apart decreases the capacitance. Capacitance is a measure of how much charge a capacitor can store per unit voltage.
Step 5: Since the charge remains constant and the capacitance decreases, the voltage across the capacitor must increase.
Step 6: The electric potential energy stored in the capacitor is given by the formula U = 1/2 * Q * V, where U is energy, Q is charge, and V is voltage.
Step 7: As the voltage increases (due to decreased capacitance), the electric potential energy also increases.
