Originally posted by Ernst
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I hear you, but what about the voltage? How did it change again? Did I do that?
What I'm getting at is you have an inverse relationship in that formula, a reciprocal. In my head that triggers something needing a closer look. The behavior you describe just doesn't fit with a mechanical observation. If I take a can full of water, then stretch the can, I don't magically get more water in it. Instead, the can is now capable of holding more water--the active word being more. More capacity. With a can of water it doesn't matter which dimensions I increase, I always get more capacity. But this electrical device we call a capacitor only gets more capacity if we increase the plate area. If we increase the volume, it gets less capacity. Something just doesn't sit well with me about that. I didn't change the voltage at all. All I did was smash the plates together tighter and now the capacitor can hold more electrical energy. Doesn't that seem odd to anyone else, just on a real primitive, common sense level?
If nothing else, doesn't that blow the whole water/electricity analogy, uh hum, out of the water?
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