In: Physics
A parallel-plate capacitor has 2.18 cm2 plates that are separated by 5.69 mm with air between them. If a 18.0 V battery is connected to this capacitor, how much energy does it store?
DATA:

SOLUTION
The energy
stored
by a parallel plate
capacitor can be obtained using:

Where:
is the
voltage on the capacitor.
is the capacitance,
which is defined as:

Where:
is the permitivity of free space, which has a value
of:

is the area of
plates of the capacitor
is the distance
between plates.
Now, first we need to find
the capacitance
, with the help of
equation (2). Therefore, replacing (3) and data given values into
equation (2) we have:

Solving we obtain:

Now, we can find the energy
stored
.
Therefore, inserting (5) and data given values into
equation (1) we have:

Solving we obtain:
