With source biased and drain grounded, a constant-interaction island has diamond edge slopes and . The latter includes the gate capacitance. A gate period for charging without an orbital gap is . Combining widths and slopes determines capacitances only under a stated bias and single-island model; shell gaps must not be mistaken for a universal gate period.
For an ideal two-plate capacitor with opposite charges, a stated inside-minus-outside charge difference is twice the inner plate charge. The voltage is inner plate charge divided by capacitance. Confusing a plate charge with the difference of plate charges creates a factor-two error in inferred membrane voltage.
MIT's demonstration places two 120-turn coils face to face, each with a capacitor. A swept sinusoid drives one circuit; an oscilloscope observes the other circuit's capacitor electric potential difference. The sheet specifies and or , giving nominal resonant frequencies near and . It presents a procedure, not a measured dataset.[ref]
A reproducible extension can test the same selection principle with the identical components of the coupled resonant circuit model. Prepare two separate series loops, measure their actual inductances, capacitances and coil electrical resistances, and include generator Thévenin resistance in the driven loop's total . Choose added resistors to make if the measured losses permit it. Include a known sense resistor within . Drive the first loop with a small function generator sinusoid; read the second loop's electric current as using an oscilloscope across the sense resistor. Here denotes the sense reading, distinct from the source electric potential difference in the model.
Sweep – slowly enough for transients to settle; record source frequency, source amplitude at the circuit terminals, and sense amplitude. Repeat at fixed coil spacing after changing one capacitor, then at fixed components after changing spacing. Turn the drive off to establish the background; rotate the receiving coil toward a right angle to test inductive coupling; restore its orientation and repeat to check drift. These are proposed controls, not observations reported by MIT. Keep probe loading small and account for it if not negligible. A grounded oscilloscope can electrically join the loops if attached to both: use an appropriately isolated differential input for any simultaneous primary measurement, or measure the primary separately.
Recovering deliberately chosen long and short generator bursts on the receiver trace demonstrates symbol timing. The essential inference is narrower than a long-distance radio test: nearby coils primarily exchange energy through mutual inductance in the near and far field regime dominated by the near field. Coil spacing, detuning and background controls distinguish this coupling from a direct wire connection or incidental pickup. They do not by themselves demonstrate reception of propagating radio waves in the radiation zone.
Let two series loops have inductances , capacitances , total electrical resistances , and reciprocal mutual inductance with . For a steady sinusoid of angular frequency , choose complex peak amplitudes with time convention . An ideal source of peak electric potential difference drives loop 1; loop 2 has no independent source. Then
Eliminating proves the response formula. Reversing one coil changes the sign of and the relative wave phase, but leaves this amplitude response unchanged. The measured sense ratio is , with included in , not added a second time.
Figure 1.
Calculated coupled resonance and the distinction between a damped train and a maintained sine
. Original predictions for two identical linear series loops with , and total per loop; the secondary includes . Top: steady sense-voltage ratios at three coupling coefficients. Bottom: one isolated loop's free damped train, exponential bounds and a maintained sine reference. Neither panel contains historical or laboratory measurements. Details.
For identical loops at their uncoupled resonant frequency ,
Writing makes this . Its derivative has the sign of , so response at this fixed frequency is largest when , equivalently . Too little coupling transfers little excitation; excessive coupling reduces the response at the original centre frequency. This is a fixed-frequency optimum, not a universal optimum over every possible receiver and drive frequency.
For the chosen values, gives . At source peak , the secondary peak electric current is and the sense peak electric potential difference is . The primary peak electric current is also , so source mean power is : each loop dissipates , checking conservation of energy. Here is the equivalent ideal source behind ; a generator's terminal reading must be converted using its measured Thévenin resistance.
In the lossless identical-loop limit, the normal modes have equal or opposite electric currents, making their effective inductances or . Thus
At these are and . Finite electrical resistance broadens and shifts the driven peaks, so the exact response formula, rather than these lossless values, generates the plot. Changing a capacitor moves the uncoupled tuning through : increasing it by lowers by the factor . The model explains why tuning and coupling must be adjusted together; it supplies no transatlantic propagation or detector-threshold prediction.
Take two electrical circuits containing coupled inductors. Let their constant self-inductances be , mutual inductance , and positive electrical resistances . Choose current directions so that the off-diagonal entries of the inductance matrix are . Assume a linear, quasistatic model, with no capacitive effects or core hysteresis. The magnetic flux linkages are and . Combining their time derivatives with resistive electric potential differences gives
The secondary is a closed, undriven electrical circuit. Require , making a positive-definite matrix. The chosen current convention fixes the signs; reversing the secondary's reference direction changes the sign assigned to and without changing the physical circuit.
There is an essential switching assumption: the primary loop remains closed when becomes zero. An ideal voltage source then imposes zero electric potential difference, allowing the current to decay. Literally opening an inductive circuit requires additional physics to determine the interruption, including possible capacitance and an electric arc. This closed-return model explains transient induction while keeping that distinction from Faraday's historical making and breaking of contact explicit.
A Josephson junction can make a collective quantum phase behave as a measurable dynamical coordinate. In current-biased Josephson phase dynamics, the Gauge-invariant Josephson phase moves in a tilted Josephson washboard potential; the junction's capacitance supplies its effective inertia. A trapped phase gives zero mean electric potential difference, while sustained phase advance produces a nonzero mean electric potential difference. Quantized phase levels in a Josephson junction and quantum escape of a current-biased Josephson junction test quantum mechanics for this collective coordinate.
Begin with a stipulated parallel electrical circuit: an ideal sinusoidal Josephson junction, capacitance , and effective electrical resistance . The Kirchhoff node law and Josephson effect give
Here is the constant bias electric current, is a deliberately applied microwave electric current, and represents unwanted fluctuating electric current. Multiplication by puts the undriven equation into the mechanical form
The effective inertia is a coefficient for a dimensionless quantum phase, not a literal material mass moving through the insulating layer. The capacitor's energy, , provides a direct check of that identification. The effective includes loading by the external electrical circuit; a constant parallel is an approximation over the relevant frequency range.
The useful design freedom is that changes the confinement while changes its inertia. The same manufactured device can therefore connect a classical oscillation, discrete energy levels, and escape to an electrical readout. The Martinis-Devoret-Clarke circuit experiments separate these questions experimentally. John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for circuit experiments establishing macroscopic quantum tunnelling and discrete energy levels.[ref]
The motivating observation is that a chemical reaction can produce a signed electrical reading even when its reacting materials occupy separate vessels. UC San Diego's teaching demonstration places a copper strip in and a zinc strip in , using two beakers with about of chemical solution in each. The strips connect to a voltage meter. Initially there is no ionic connection; the demonstration specifies a zero reading. A filter-paper salt bridge containing aqueous then connects the chemical solutions. With the meter's positive lead on copper and negative lead on zinc, its reported readings are about ; exchanging the leads reverses the reading. These are observations reported by the university, not data generated for this article. See UC San Diego, demonstration 9B: apparatus, bridge control and meter polarity.
The controls answer different questions. Exchanging only the meter leads checks the sign convention; it does not reverse the chemical reaction or swap the anode and cathode. Interrupting only the salt bridge tests the need for an ionic return path. Its absence prevents sustained cell electric current, but a very high-input-resistance meter may still show a transient or unstable reading while interfaces store electric charge. The zero reading specified for the university's apparatus is therefore not a universal theorem for every meter. Reconnecting the same salt bridge distinguishes a reversible interruption from a disconnected wire or exhausted chemical solution. This interpretation follows from electric charge conservation in a model allowing interfacial electric charge storage; see IUPAC Gold Book: integral capacitance of an electrode for the capacitance associated with electrode charge.
To distinguish terminal electric potential difference from delivered power, compare the nearly open-circuit reading with readings across a known resistor load. In the nearly open-circuit condition, a meter with input electrical resistance much larger than the cell's effective internal electrical resistance draws little electric current. With a load, measure its terminal electric potential difference and infer using Ohm's law; track the readings over time and repeat the nearly open-circuit reading afterwards. Keep the temperature, chemical solution compositions, immersed electrode areas, bridge geometry and electrical contacts comparable. This is a model-based extension of the documented demonstration, not a claim that UC San Diego published a load sweep. A finite-current drop can reflect ionic electrical resistance, changes of interfacial reaction rates, or depletion near an electrode; a single voltage reading cannot identify which dominates. The interfacial and composition contributions are distinguished in IUPAC Gold Book: overpotential and [ref].
For a deliberately simplified calculation, model the cell by a constant electromotive force in series with a constant internal electrical resistance , and a passive load . Take positive from the cathode through the load to the anode. Then
The nearly open-circuit limit gives but and . A straight -versus- line is a prediction of constant , not a general law for electrochemistry. See Ling, Sanny and Moebs, University Physics II, §10.1: internal resistance, terminal voltage and load.
Figure 1. . Calculated line and energy bars, not measurements. Chosen inputs are , , and a interval. The fixed-composition approximation and unit efficiency for the two intended half-reactions are assumed. The open-circuit marker is an ideal limit; no fit to experimental data is made. Details.
For the chosen values, and . Holding these toy parameters fixed for gives transported electric charge and an extent of reaction , assuming all the electric current serves the two specified half-reactions. The same counts zinc consumed and copper deposited, rather than equal masses. The energy budget is
The load's electrical work also becomes Joule heating when the load is a resistor. Here accounts for the reaction's available reversible electrical work; a full cell thermal budget would also require its thermodynamic entropy contribution. Real measurements need uncertainty estimates, a specified meter input electrical resistance and calibration, and allowance for changing composition and unwanted chemical reactions. The toy value is not a measured property of the university's cell.
For series resistance R and inductance L in parallel with capacitance C, suppose the applied voltage amplitude V is fixed. The DC current gives . If the high-frequency current is , then . At the nonzero zero-phase frequency, current amplitude determines . The condition must hold. The inferred zero-phase frequency is ; it is not automatically the exact frequency of minimum current magnitude.
The motivating observation is that inserting an insulating material between fixed capacitor plates increases its capacitance. [ref]. To investigate this response, use two flat parallel metal electrodes with measured overlapping area and separation , a uniform specimen filling the gap, and an instrument that measures electrical impedance. Record the capacitance with and without the specimen at the same small applied electric potential difference, frequency and temperature, after capacitance measurement calibration. An increase in corrected capacitance indicates a larger permittivity, provided the geometry is unchanged. A guard electrode reduces the contribution of the fringing field of a capacitor. [ref].
For negligible dielectric loss in the parallel-plate capacitor approximation,
An air reference approximates ; it is not an exact vacuum reference. For the following synthetic example, stipulate , and the rounded vacuum permittivity . Then in this model, and relative permittivity four gives . A residual parallel capacitance of would make an uncorrected sample/reference ratio , rather than four. This additive error does not cancel in a ratio.
Figure 1.
Synthetic capacitance response to relative permittivity and frequency
. Left: the ideal scalar capacitance and a hypothetical additive stray capacitance of . Right: a hypothetical dielectric relaxation model, with , for the same geometry. The solid curve is the parallel capacitance ; the dashed curve is the loss component , not an independently measured storage capacitance. Every plotted value is synthetic. Details.
At nonzero frequency , measure both magnitude and phase of the electric current relative to the applied electric potential difference. Define , where is electrical impedance. For the stated complex permittivity convention, the ideal uniform specimen gives
Thus a parallel capacitor and electrical conductance describe the readout at that frequency; a single scalar capacitance cannot describe both components. The diagram's assumed dielectric relaxation gives and at . These are model predictions, not observations.
Repeat the reference measurement after removing the specimen and vary the small applied electric potential difference to test drift and linearity. Record specimen thickness, electrode area, contact conditions, frequency and temperature. Air gaps act as additional layers in series and can lower inferred relative permittivity; roughness, uncertain thickness and the fringing field of a capacitor limit the geometric formula. At sufficiently high frequency, the fixture itself changes the electromagnetic field, so low-frequency guarding and a lumped capacitor model require reassessment. [ref].
Compare two initially identical parallel-plate capacitors with plate area , fixed gap , vacuum capacitance , and initial electric potential difference . Completely fill both gaps with the same uniform linear dielectric of static relative permittivity , neglecting the fringing field of a capacitor. Keep one connected to an ideal voltage source and isolate the other. The geometric capacitance becomes in both cases; the electrical constraint determines what else changes.[ref]
Write , and . Applying , and the capacitor energy formula gives the complete comparison:
Thus the statement that a dielectric reduces the electric field needs the fixed-free-charge condition. With fixed electric potential difference, the voltage source supplies additional free plate electric charge, maintaining despite the new bound electric charges.
Figure 1.
Dielectric capacitor response at fixed voltage and fixed charge
. Original normalized comparison for the stipulated model : every ratio is relative to the same initially charged vacuum capacitor. The dashed line marks the initial value. The bars show final values, not a time history or measured data. Plate geometry is unchanged and the dielectric completely fills the gap. Details.
For the stipulated example, the voltage source supplies . At constant , its delivered electrical work is , whereas the increase in capacitor energy is . In an ideal reversible quasistatic insertion, the remaining is mechanical work delivered by the assembly, as accounted for in fixed-voltage capacitor energy balance. For the isolated assembly, capacitor energy falls from to , allowing of mechanical work in the same ideal limit. Actual losses reduce recoverable work; energy increases in the connected case do not arise from the dielectric supplying free energy.
At fixed electric potential difference , a change of capacitance has electrical work input and field-energy increase . The remaining half is mechanical work done by the field, so the force in the direction of increasing overlap is . Equivalently the effective mechanical potential is . For a partially filled coaxial capacitor, this gives , directed inward when . The fringing field of a capacitor supplies the local field gradient and transmits this force even when its small correction to total capacitance is neglected.
Dielectric loss Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
Conversion of electrical energy into heat in a dielectric driven by an electric field. In the stated harmonic convention, a passive scalar response has for positive angular frequency. A dielectric capacitance measurement measures a dissipative component as well as capacitance; leakage from electrical conductivity can contribute to the inferred loss.
Dielectric loss tangent 2026-10-25
For a capacitor represented by ideal capacitance and series electrical resistance , the complex impedance is . The ratio of its dissipative part to the magnitude of its reactive part is . This dimensionless ratio characterizes loss at a specified frequency; equivalent parallel parameters generally differ from the series parameters.
Differentiate the Grahame equation for a planar symmetric monovalent electrolyte with respect to surface potential at fixed reservoir concentration and temperature. The result is the displayed capacitance per unit area. It approaches in the Debye–Hückel approximation. A compact surface layer can contribute a separate series capacitance; point-ion packing assumptions also fail at sufficiently high near-surface concentration.[ref]
Diffusion-capacitance analogy Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-20
A quasi-static chemical potential outside a fixed-shape droplet solves the same Laplace equation as an electrostatic potential outside an equipotential conductor. If on the droplet and zero on the surrounding reservoirs, its outward diffusive current is
where is the corresponding electrostatic capacitance in a medium of permittivity . The arbitrary cancels against the capacitance's proportionality to . Thus electrostatic geometry directly determines evaporation rates.
Displacement and current bandwidths of a series RLC circuit Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Write and for a series RLC circuit. The squared charge response has denominator . Its nonzero resonance peak occurs at . The two squared half-height frequencies, when both exist, are
Their difference in angular frequencies is only approximately at large quality factor. The electric current instead has . Its exact half-power frequencies satisfy , whose positive roots differ by , independently of capacitance. Thus an exact capacitance-independent bandwidth applies to current or resistor-voltage output; capacitor-voltage output is a low-pass response with a possible resonant peak.
Electrical circuit Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-18
Electrical insulator 2026-10-14
An electrical insulator has sufficiently small transport of electric charge for its operating conditions. Insulation is a practical requirement involving electric potential difference, temperature, geometry and duration, rather than a universal claim of zero electrical conductivity. Electric polarization can be substantial in an electrical insulator; dielectric breakdown can end the insulating regime.
For an idealized uniform slab with small constant electrical conductivity , the Ohmic conductor model predicts leakage electrical resistance in parallel with capacitance . An isolated capacitor then has
This is a derived model of slow discharge, not an assertion that every leakage mechanism obeys Ohm's law. Its time scale matches charge relaxation. The fixed-charge comparison in dielectric capacitor response needs an observation time short compared with , but long enough for electric polarization to settle. During a maintained voltage, leakage consumes power as Joule heating; delayed electric polarization can add dielectric loss under changing electric fields.[ref]
Large relative permittivity alone does not rule out either mechanism.[ref]
Electrical reactance Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
Electrical reactance is the signed imaginary part of electrical impedance , measured in ohms. It describes the part of the terminal electric potential difference in phase quadrature with the electric current in a sinusoidal steady state. In the convention, an ideal inductor has and an ideal capacitor has for . A large reduces electric current at fixed applied voltage, but an ideal purely reactive component returns the energy it receives over each cycle. This is why electrical reactance and electrical resistance have the same units yet describe different physical behavior. [ref].
Figure 1. . Calculated ideal curves, not measured data: inductance , capacitance , total electrical resistance , and applied root mean square voltage . The is the sensing resistor in electrical reactance bench measurement. Top: , signed , and their sum. Bottom: electric current and voltage-minus-current phase difference. At the sum vanishes, the electric current peaks, and terminal voltage and electric current are in phase. Details.
In a series RLC circuit, electrical impedances add because the same electric current passes through every component. For ideal positive inductance , capacitance , and total electrical resistance ,
Here is voltage wave phase minus current wave phase. Below , and electric current leads terminal voltage; above it, and electric current lags. At , the two signed electrical reactances cancel, leaving and the maximum electric current at fixed terminal voltage. This is the resonant series RLC response. Electrical resistance does not cancel: the toy circuit gives and there. These numbers follow directly from the stipulated component values. [ref].
Cancellation concerns terminal voltage, not the disappearance of stored energy. In the toy circuit at resonance, the individual inductor and capacitor voltages are each in root mean square magnitude, with opposite wave phases, while their sum is zero. Their peak stored magnetic energy and capacitor energy are each , attained at different times. With smaller positive , either component voltage can exceed the applied voltage. This ability to select a frequency while sustaining internal energy exchange connects electrical reactance to tuning and frequency response.
For an ideal inductor or capacitor, the absorbed instantaneous power equals the rate of change of stored energy:
Positive power stores energy; negative power returns it. Over a periodic steady state, each stored energy returns to its initial value, so its cycle-averaged absorbed power is zero. An ideal resistor instead has , transferring energy into Joule heating. More generally, the average terminal power of this series RLC circuit is
Zero average power in an ideal reactive component does not imply zero instantaneous power, zero electric current, or zero stored energy. Real coils and capacitors have losses, so zero ideal reactive loss is a model assumption rather than a claim about every component. [ref].
The motivating observation is a pair of sinusoids on an oscilloscope: changing frequency changes both their relative amplitudes and their phase difference. Gary Tuttle's EE 201 laboratory uses resistor voltage as the current-phase reference, compares predictions with readings at several frequencies, and explicitly asks students to measure component values and account for coil electrical resistance. The following bench arrangement applies that method to a series RLC circuit; its component values and illustrated traces are our own toy example. [ref].
Figure 1.
Toy AC bench arrangement and predicted voltage/current timing
. Top: a sine generator drives ideal , , , and current-sensing in series. Channel A measures loaded terminal voltage; channel B measures relative to the common return. Bottom: calculated separate voltage traces at and terminal , not an oscilloscope recording or measured data. The rising zero of channel B occurs earlier: and predicted . The two trace axes have different voltage scales. Details.
Connect a low-voltage sine generator to a series chain ending in a known sensing resistor at the common return. Use a resistor whose unwanted inductance is negligible over the chosen frequency range. An oscilloscope displays voltage against time: channel A reads the loaded voltage across the whole chain, and channel B reads the voltage across . Both channel ground connections and the generator return meet at that same node. Ordinary bench oscilloscope grounds are electrically common; attaching one to an intermediate circuit node would change the circuit. A separate floating component voltage needs a suitable differential measurement, rather than moving a ground clip. [ref].
After the free transient decays, record frequency , period , both voltage amplitudes, and matched rising zero-crossing times . Check that the traces are sinusoidal. Define on the branch . With negligible probe loading and negligible sensing-resistor electrical reactance, , so channel B is the electric current reference, and in the reactance phase convention
A later current crossing gives , hence positive electrical reactance; an earlier crossing gives negative electrical reactance. Use the same amplitude convention for both channels. An amplitude-only ratio recovers , so it cannot distinguish the two signs: timing supplies the missing information. The formulas follow from and the chosen terminal orientation.
Begin with a known resistor replacing the reactive chain: its expected phase difference is approximately zero, testing channel polarity and relative delay. Measure the same signal with both channels to establish the instrumental delay baseline, then exchange probes to check that a phase offset does not belong to one channel. Next test an inductor and a capacitor separately with : after subtracting from the inferred real part, expect approximately and , respectively. Finally combine and sweep through the predicted resonance. These are proposed controls and consequences of the model, not reported observations.
For the toy series RLC circuit, the prediction at is , , , and . At , and . Near the model predicts zero phase difference and . Keep actual loaded fixed or normalize by it at each frequency; the generator's display alone does not establish that voltage. The sensing resistor is part of the total and therefore changes the predicted peak electric current.
Real components add unintended electrical impedance: coil wire has electrical resistance, nearby turns add capacitance, and capacitor leads add inductance. These effects can produce a component's own resonance, beyond which the ideal or approximation fails. Work in a range where that approximation is adequate, measure coil wire electrical resistance, and compare the inferred with the sensing resistor, intended resistor, and component losses. A measured nonzero real part is evidence of loss in the assembly, not negative or positive electrical reactance becoming heat. [ref]; [ref].
The probes also add electrical resistance and capacitance to the measured nodes; their loading becomes more important as frequency increases. Use compensated probes with known input electrical impedance and short ground connections, and repeat with a smaller drive voltage to test whether the inferred depends on amplitude. [ref]. Record actual voltage and phase readings separately from calculated predictions, with component tolerances and timing uncertainty. A phase error alone produces approximately , so near zero electrical reactance, a small delay can imitate a small residual . Agreement within stated uncertainties tests the model; the smooth toy curves establish no experimental accuracy.