Three parallel plates are arranged one above the other, with a capacitance of 50 nF between adjacent plates. When a charge of 1.0 C is deposited on the upper plate, what is the resulting potential difference between the middle plate and the lower plate?

Step-by-step solution

Let the three parallel plates be P₁ (upper), P₂ (middle), and P₃ (lower). The total charge given to the system is Q = 1.0 C on the upper plate, while the middle and lower plates are uncharged ( Q₂ = 0 , Q₃ = 0 ). For a system of parallel conducting plates, the charge appearing on the outermost surfaces is half of the total charge of the system. Charge on the outermost surfaces = Q_ total 2 = 1.0 C + 0 + 0 2 = 0.5 C . Thus, the top surface of P₁ has a charge of 0.5 C . Since the total charge on P₁ is 1.0 C , the cha