Figure 25-47 shows a parallel-plate capacitor with a plate area A = 5.56 cm² and separation d = 5.56 mm. The left half of the gap is filled with material of dielectric constant κ1 = 7.00; the right half is filled with material of dielectric constant κ2 = 12.0.What is the capacitance?
The capacitor can be viewed as two capacitors C1and C2 in parallel, each with surface area A/2 and plate separation d, filled with dielectric materials with dielectric constants κ1 and κ2, respectively. Thus, (in SI units),
C=C1+C2=dε0(A/2)κ1+dε0(A/2)κ2=dε0A(2κ1+κ2)=5.56×10−3m(8.85×10−12C2/N⋅m2)(5.56×10−4m2)(27.00+12.00)=8.41×10−12F.