How many electrons must be transferred from one plate to the other to create a spark between the plates?

Question

Air "breaks down" when the electric field strength reaches 3×10^6N/C, causing a spark. A parallel-plate capacitor is made from two 4.3 cm × 4.3 cm plates.

Answer 1

Step 1:

The electric field strength between the parallel plates .

Dimensions of the two parallel plates is .

Find the number of electrons transferred from one plate to another.

Total Charge , where

is the number of electrons.

is the electron charge().

Therefore, .

Step 2:

Find the total charge on the two plates.

Total charge , where

is the capacitance of the two plates .

is the voltage across the parallel plates .

Here is the area of the plate .

is the permittivity of free space .

Find the number of electrons.

Solution:

Number of electrons transferred from one plate to another

Comments

Thank you it was very helpful