Experimental General Physics for Engineering II

PHYS 194 Spring 2017

Experiment title: Dielectric constant

Student Name: maryam alansari
Student ID: 201300876
CRN: 20172 Lab section: L 52
Lab list number: XX Lab group number: XX

Lab Partners Name : maram ahmed

: arianne samson

Experiment date: 08-Mar- 17Due date: 015-Mar-17

Instructor: Ignatius Pinto

For instructors use - Submitted date: 17-Mar-17
Experiment 2 dielectric
constant

Table of Contents

1. Aim of the experiment........................................................................................... 1

2. Introduction........................................................................................................... 1
3. Experimental design and procedure......................................................................2
4. Data Analysis......................................................................................................... 3
5. Discussion and Conclusion........................................................................................ 6
6. Reference................................................................................................................ 6
Experiment 2 dielectric constant

1 Aim of the experiment

1- Finding the relation between capacitance, area and separation of plates and
dielectric constant.and capacity of different between insulator and capacity of air.
2- Calculate the dielectric constant of the insulator.

2 Introduction

Dielectrics are insulators, simple as that. If a material contains polar molecules,

they will generally be in random orientations when no electric field is applied. An
applied electric field will polarize the material by orienting the dipole moments of
2
polar molecules .

This decreases the effective electric field between the plates and will increase
the capacitance of the parallel plate structure. The dielectric must be a good
2
electric insulator so as to minimize any DC leakage current through a capacitor .

Theory

Dielectric constant, is a property of an electrical insulating material (a dielectric)

equal to the ratio of the capacitance of a capacitor filled with the given material to
the capacitance of an identical capacitor in a vacuum without the dielectric
material. The insertion of a dielectric between the plates of, say, a parallel-plate
capacitor always increases its capacitance, or ability to store opposite charges
on each plate, compared with this ability when the plates are separated by a
vacuum. If C is the value of the capacitance of a capacitor filled with a given
dielectric and C0 is the capacitance of an identical capacitor in a vacuum, the
dielectric constant, symbolized by the Greek letter kappa, , is simply expressed
1
as :

= C/C0 (1)

Dielectric constant is a number without dimensions. It denotes a large-scale

property of dielectrics without specifying the electrical behavior on the atomic
scale. The value of the static dielectric constant of any material is always greater
than one, its value for a vacuum.

plastic plastic A
K= =
air air A

(2)

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Experiment 2 dielectric constant

3 Experimental design and procedure

1- Equipment

Parallel plate capacitor, capacitor meter, connecting wire, and plastic sheets.

Procedure

Part I: Measuring capacitance with plastic

1. The experimental setup is as shown in Figure 2. 1.

Figure 2. 1: Circuit of Parallel plate capacitor with capacitance meter

2. Insert a plastic sheet between the plates, record the capacitance and the
distance between the plates. Estimate your measurement uncertainties.

3. Repeat step 2 by adding more sheets and record your readings in Table 2.1.

Part II: Measuring capacitance with air

1. Set the plate separation as in Table with air between the plates, record the
capacitance. Estimate your measurement uncertainties.

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Experiment 2 dielectric constant

4 Data Analysis

Part (1): Measuring Capacitance with plastic

# C(nF) U(C ) d(mm) U(d) 1/d

1
( )
mm

1 0.376 0.001 4.070 0.100 0.246

2 0.244 0.001 8.900 0.100 0.112
3 0.189 0.001 11.100 0.100 0.090
4 0.160 0.001 14.200 0.100 0.070
5 0.153 0.001 15.200 0.100 0.066
6 0.138 0.001 18.100 0.100 0.055
Table (1): Data obtained when plastic plates were placed between the
capacitor.

Capacitance for the plastic sheets

0.400
0.350 f(x) = 1.25x + 0.08
0.300 R = 0.98
0.250
0.200
C (nF) 0.150
0.100
0.050
0.000
0.000 0.050 0.100 0.150 0.200 0.250 0.300

1/d (mm-1)
Graph
(1): (1/d) vs C plastic

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Experiment 2 dielectric constant

Slope 1.24 Intercept (Y) 0.0772

Slope 0.0943 Y intercept 0.0117
Table (2): Shows the slope and intercepts and their errors for part (1)

Part (2): Measuring Capacitance with Air

# C(nF) U(C ) d(mm) U(d) 1/d

1
( )
mm

1 0.157 0.001 4.070 0.100 0.246

2 0.111 0.001 8.900 0.100 0.112
3 0.092 0.001 11.100 0.100 0.090
4 0.083 0.001 14.200 0.100 0.070
5 0.080 0.001 15.200 0.100 0.066
6 0.074 0.001 18.100 0.100 0.055
Table (3): Data obtained when nothing between the plates of the capacitor.
(only Air)

Capacitance for air

0.200

0.150 f(x) = 0.43x + 0.05

R = 0.98
0.100
C (nF)
0.050

0.000
0.000 0.050 0.100 0.150 0.200 0.250 0.300

1/d (mm-1)

Graph (2): (1/d) vs C Air

Slope 0.431 Intercept (Y) 0.0535

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Experiment 2 dielectric constant

Slope 0.0319 Y intercept 0.00398

Table (4): Shows the slope and intercepts and their errors for part (2)

Calculation:

Part (1): Measuring Capacitance with plastic :

1 d 0.1mm 1
= 2 = =0.006
d d 2
4.70 mm
2
mm

K A
Cdielectric= d ,

AK = Cdielectric d

(
2 2
( slope ) ( slope )
u(slope)= U( K A ) = C )(
u ( C (dielectric ) ) +
d
u (d ) )
( K A ) = ( d u(C)) + ( C u ( d ) ) = ( 4. 0 70 ( 0.001 ) ) +( 0. 376 ( 0.1 00 ) ) =
2 2 2 2

4.0711nF.mm

Part (2): Measuring Capacitance with Air:

(
2 2
( slope ) ( slope )
u(slope)= U( K A ) = C )(
u ( C (dielectric ) ) +
d
u (d ) )
u( K A ) = ( d u(C)) +( C u ( d ) ) =
2 2
( 4.070 ( 0.001 ) ) +( 0.157 ( 0.100 ) )
2 2

u( KA ) = 4.071nF.mm

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Experiment 2 dielectric constant

plastic A S plastic 1.24

K= = = =2.87( unitless)
air A S air 0.431

K =K (

S plastic 2 S air 2
S plastic
) +(
S air
) =2.87 (

0.0943 2 0.0319 2
1.24
) +(
0.431
) = 0.304

The experimental value of dielectric constant is

K=2.87 0.304

2.873.00 100
3.00
Experimental valuetheoretical value = 4.3% < 10 %
error = 100 =
Theoretical value

5 Discussion and Conclusion

Discussion
Our obtained data are represented by the equation of dielectric constant,
as R2 of both plots were highly close to 1, which means the data were precise.
2
X method is used in order to estimate the precision of experimental

value of K with literature value which is 3 1 for plastic plates.

2
2 ( K thK exp ) ( 32.87 )2
x= 2 2
= 2 2
=0.0154<3
( K th ) + ( K exp ) ( 1 ) + ( 0.304 )

Since x 2 is much less than 3, the experimental theoretical value of R in

parallel are equal. The experimental value was so precise to the literature value.

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Experiment 2 dielectric constant

This minor difference is caused by human error in measuring and reading data
from devices, and using inaccurate tools.

Conclusion

In this experiment, we used capacitor to make a uniform electron field in

order to calculate the experimental value of dielectric constant of plastic plates.

The experimental value of K was obtained is equal to K=2.87 0.304 which

was so close to literature value of plastic K=3 1 . This slight error was due to

misreading data from Vernier and capacitor meter, as the least digit of capacitor
meter was not fixed.

6 Reference

1- Lab manual Physics II.

2- Young, H. D., & Freedman, R. A. (2014). Sears and Zemanskys University
Physics with Modern Physics Technology Update

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