A parallel-plate capacitor with plate area 20 cm2 and plate separation 1.0 mm is connected to a battery. The resistance of the circuit is 10 kΩ. Find the time constant of the circuit.
Concepts/Formulas Used:
Time constant for capacitor:
Where R is the resistance through which the capacitor is being charged/discharged and C is the capacitance.
Capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor:
A capacitor consists of two conducting plates of area of cross section A each separated by a distance d. The capacitance if there is only vacuum between the plates is given by:
where ϵ0 is the permittivity of free space.
Given,
Area of the plate,
(
Now, distance of separation:
Resistance ,
We know that,