Brief instructions for constructing an approximation
to the simple parallel plate capacitor
This is super-simple.
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Only an 11 x 11 grid
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Each 'plate' of the capacitor is only 3 cells wide
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In 2-D Laplace's equation, each cell is the average of the ones around
it.
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Cell B2 would be typed in as =(b1+b3+a2+c2)/4
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This cell is then copied over an 11 x 11 grid, first B2..L2
and then down to B12..L12
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(If it complains about circular references, press
Cancel,
and go on.)
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The cells outside of this region have zero in them so we may think of them
as grounded
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We put the capacitor in the middle of this region.
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Cells F5..H5 are set to 1000. This
is the positive plate of the capacitor
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Cells F9..H9 are set to 0. This is
the other plate of the capacitor
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Under Tools/Options/Calculation
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Select Iterations, and set it for 100 iterations. Select
Manual recalculation
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When you press F9 it will iterate until it gets within 0.001 of the previous
value in each cell, (or until 100 iterations are completed)
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The results should be left-right symmetric.
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Block the 11 x 11 grid with the mouse. Go to the chart wizard and
select Surface plot.
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Work through the chart wizard steps (labeling axes, etc.) to finish the
plot.
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The electric field is the negative gradient of the potential, so one gets
an idea of the electric field inside and outside the capacitor. (One wants
a bigger grid for this to have much meaning)
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The surface charge density is related to the surface electric field so
one can see a greater charge density between the plates (on the inside
of each plate) than outside (the outside surface of each plate).