Parallel-plate capacitor

A capacitor made from two parallel conducting plates separated by an insulating gap. It stores equal and opposite charges on the plates and energy in the electric field between them.

Capacitance: A measure of how much electric charge a system stores per unit of potential difference. For ideal plates, capacitance grows with plate area and falls with their separation.
Electric charge: A fundamental property of matter that produces electric forces and can be positive or negative. Charge transferred between the plates is the quantity the capacitor stores.
Ceramic capacitor: A capacitor that uses ceramic as its dielectric, often with many thin electrode layers. Stacked internal plates multiply the effective area within a compact component.
Spherical capacitor: A capacitor formed by two concentric spherical conducting shells separated by an insulating region. Its field spreads radially, unlike the nearly uniform field between large parallel plates.
Electric field: A vector field that describes the electric force per unit charge at each point in space. Opposite plate charges create the field that stores the capacitor’s energy.
Electric potential: Potential energy per unit charge at a point in an electric field. The potential difference between the plates determines how much charge a given capacitance stores.
Vacuum capacitor: A capacitor whose electrodes are separated by vacuum rather than a solid dielectric. Its adjustable plate spacing provides high-voltage capacitance with low dielectric loss.
Cylindrical capacitor: A capacitor formed by two coaxial cylindrical conductors separated by an insulating region. Its cylindrical symmetry gives a radial field rather than a plate-like field.
Gauss's law: A law stating that electric flux through a closed surface equals enclosed charge divided by permittivity. A pillbox Gaussian surface derives the nearly uniform field between large plates.
Conductor: A material in which electric charges can move freely over macroscopic distances. Mobile charges redistribute on each plate until its interior is an equipotential.

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