In general, inserting a metal sheet between the plates of a capacitor turns it into two larger capacitors connected in series. If the sheet is thin, the resulting equivalent capacitance will be roughly the same. If the sheet is thick, the resulting equivalent capacitance will be greater than the original.
Note: The plate inserted has a lateral surface area larger than the plates of the parallel plate capacitor. In general, inserting a metal sheet between the plates of a capacitor turns it into two larger capacitors connected in series. If the sheet is thin, the resulting equivalent capacitance will be roughly the same.
This source claims that putting a metal plate in between the capacitor plates greatly reduces the capacitance. How is this possible? Two equal capacitances in series decreases the capacitance by half, but the distance is also decreased by half, so the overall capacitance must not change right?
The plates of an isolated parallel plate capacitor with a capacitance C carry a charge Q. The plate separation is d. Initially, the space between the plates contains only air. Then, an isolated metal sheet of thickness 0.5d is inserted between, but not touching, the plates.
This is because the top plate of capacitor, C1 is connected to the top plate of C2 which is connected to the top plate of C3 and so on. The same is also true of the capacitors bottom plates.
Think of metal film capacitors which literally have a metal film vapor deposited onto the dielectric. The less metal thickness the less the waste in mass and bulk and metal. It only needs to be thick enough to have full conductivity. Adding thickness just adds mass and bulk with no gain, so optimal thickness is to be as thin as possible.
If you gradually increase the distance between the plates of a capacitor (although always keeping it sufficiently small so that the field is uniform) does the intensity of the field change or does it stay the same? If the former, does it increase or …