Re: Conserving Q/Faraday

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

Thanks, John Denker, for an interesting message. Will think about it
during the weekend. I agree that experiments must be chosen very
carefully and that one must be able to recognize a dead end. In this
particular case we just wanted to reproduce Faraday's experiment with
modern materials and equipment. Was he right or wrong by claiming the
existence of "penetration of charges" into dielectric materials?
Ludwik Kowalski

> First, let's replace the insulating dielectric by a conducting dielectric;
> that is, we build a three-plate capacitor as follows:
>
>        P1  P2  P3
>        P1  P2  P3
>        P1  P2  P3
> wwwwwwwP1  P2  P3wwwwww
>        P1  P2  P3
>        P1  P2  P3
>        P1  P2  P3
>
> where "w" indicates a wire, and P2 is the "dielectric" plate.  The
> advantage of this scheme is that we can unambiguously talk about the
> voltage on P2.   .......
> ........................
> Concerning my philosophy of pedagogy:  Any net Q on P2 is either
> irrelevant to, or a violation of, the usual laws of capacitance. I would
> make sure that the students understand the basic, normal laws. Only after
> that knowledge was well consolidated would I delve into deviations.