Re: dissectible capacitor

["Carl E. Mungan" <cmungan@UWF.EDU>]

Bill wrote:

> Even if the charge was immobilised upon the
> dielectric surfaces, the metal plates would be charged electrophorus-like
> by induction, and would act just like a conventional charged capacitor
> after reassembly.

In order to generate a net charge, the electrophorus requires that
you touch a grounded wire to the outer surface of the metal plate
after contacting it with the dielectric.

Here we are not doing this. Hence there is no net charge on the metal
plate. True there is a charge separation between the two surfaces.
But in the capacitor equation V=Q/C, Q is the net charge on the
plate. As I see it, charge separation is not good enough.

So in Leigh's experiment, just as net charge is transferred from the
plate to the glass during the charging (But why does this occur?), so
net charge must be transferred back during the reassembly. (Again,
why?)

One or two literature references were cited which I'll try to track
down. Surely some other folks have worked on this problem. Carl
--
Dr. Carl E. Mungan, Assistant Prof. of Physics    http://uwf.edu/cmungan/
Univ. of West Florida, Pensacola, FL 32514  850-474-2645  cmungan@uwf.edu
moving this fall to: US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402   410-293-6650