Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: The Capacitor problem - once more



If I understand Jack right, then we can bring the C3 plates together in
infinitesmal steps, keeping the charge in pseudo-equilibrium, and absorbing
the "excess" energy as we do so. In this case, it seems that it does not
matter if the connecting wires are superconducting or not. Or is my
intuition faulty here?

Indeed, this is the other extreme from closing the switch so quickly that
the charge does not start to redistribute until the switch is closed
(remember there is inductance), which is the case I had in mind before, as I
now understand it.

Jack's case, with the plates coming together under their own attraction is
more interesting if we include in the problem the L of the circuit, since
the current would seem to be non-zero as the plates collide, which means
that a current oscillation continues after the collision.

Now what about elastic plates that will bounce back after colliding...

Mark


At 09:43 03-06-99 -0400, you wrote:
Basically what we are doing here is starting in one state with a
particular energy in the system (the two separated capacitors) and
moving to a second state with lower energy in the system (the two
joined capacitors). Often in this type of situation there is more than
one way to get from state-1 to state-2. Appropriate selection of
capacitor size and wire resistance might push the predominant
energy-loss mechanism toward E&M waves. But selecting larger wire
resistance and larger capacitance can push the predominant energy-loss
mechanism toward thermal energy. Jack has described yet another
interesting pathway in which a third party removes the energy
difference between state-1 and state-2.

<snip>

In the original capacitor description we simply close a switch.


Let's push the problem to another extreme and assume that the
interconnections are made with SUPERCONDUCTORS!!!!!!

(How is the 'spring-pendulum' model going to address the energy
dissipation that occurs? I'm sure it's possible, just not clear to me
yet.)

-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-
\ / \ / \ N / \ C / \ S / \ S / \ M / \ / \ /
`-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-'
Chuck Britton Education is what is left when
britton@odie.ncssm.edu you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math you learned in school.
(919) 286-3366 x224 Albert Einstein, 1936



Mark Sylvester
United World College of the Adriatic
34013 Duino TS
Italy
msylvest@spin.it