Objective: Determining the relative permittivity of various materials
Any insulating or poorly conducting material which lacks free charge carriers can act as a dielectric when an electric field passes through it. The material may be a gas, liquid or solid. The dielectric is polarised in the electric field. This polarisation can be induced (displacement) polarisation or orientational polarisation. In the experiment the voltage applied across a plate capacitor is measured both with and without cardboard or a transparent acrylic plate inserted between the capacitor’s plates. The dielectric constants of these intervening materials are obtained from the ratio of the measured voltages.
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