Tasnim Khan

1/25/2011

Lakeside High School

Aluminum Foil
Text Book
Capacitor
AP Physics
INTRODUCTION
A capacitor is a device that stores charge. The amount of charge a capacitor
can hold for a given potential difference across it is called the capacitance,
which is measured in unit called the Farad. The formula for capacitance is
expressed as:

C=QV
where C stands for capacitance(F), Q stands for charge(C), and V stands for
potential difference(V). However, for the purposes of this lab, we used a
variation on the formula:

C=ε0 AD

where ε0 stands for the permittivity of free space(8.85*1012), A stands for the
area of the metal plates of the capacitor, and D stands for the distance
between the plates of the capacitor. Also, to find the dielectric constant of
the pages of the text book, we used this formula:

C=K ε0 AD

the only new variable being K, which stands for the dielectric constant.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this lab is to:

• Investigate the quantitative nature of the dependence of capacitance

on plate separation and on the area of the two plates
• Determine the dielectric constant for text book paper

PROCEDURE
Make two sheets of Aluminum Foil of equal size and place them in your text
book separated by a reasonable amount of pages. The sheets shouldn’t
extend past the edges of the book except for small tabs for making a
connection with the multimeter. The capacitance can directly be measured
by the multimeter. Repeat this step with varying number of pages between
the sheets of Aluminum Foil. Next, cut the sheets of aluminum foil into pairs
of varying areas. Place these pairs in the text book separated by a constant
number of pages. Take readings with the multimeter.

DATA
Number of Pages vs. Capacitance
Area of Aluminum Foil: 0.066m2

Number of Pages Capacitance

35 3.5*10-9 F

40 3.0*10-9 F

45 2.5*10-9 F

Varying Areas of Aluminum Foil vs. Capacitance

Number of Pages: 40

Area of Foil Capacitance

0.0484m2 2.2*10-9 F

0.0660m2 3.0*10-9 F

ANALYSIS
To find the distance between the sheets of foil, we used the formula:

C= (8.85*10-12) AD

and plugged in values for C and A to find the D.

EX: 3.0*10-9 = (8.85*10-12) 0.0660D

Distance between Sheets of Foil vs. Capacitance

Distance between Foil Capacitance
 0.00017m 3.5*10-9 F

0.00019m 3.0*10-9 F

0.00023m 2.5*10-9 F

To find the dielectric constant of text book paper, we used the formula:

C=K (8.85*10-12) AD

and plugged in values for C, A, and D to find the K.

• 3.0*10-9=K (8.85*10-12) 0.06600.00019

• K=0.979

GRAPHS

Conclusion
According to the data collected during the experiment, there is a positive
correlation between the area of the sheet of aluminum foil and the
capacitance; there is a negative correlation between the distance between
the sheets of foil and the capacitance. Those were the results to be
expected, and they can be proved by looking at the formula. The dielectric
constant for text book paper was found to be 0.979, whereas according to
Table 17-3 in the textbook, the dielectric constant of paper is stated to be
3.7. The percent error for the dielectric constant comes out to be 73.5%.