2 fixed semi-circular conducting plates each of radius are placed parallel to each other at a separation distance of to form a capacitor. Another semi-circular plate of thickness and mass made of a dielectric of dielectric constant just fills in the space between the plates of the capacitor.
The dielectric plate is free to rotate about the axis which passes through the center and is perpendicular to the plane of the plates.
Now, a potential difference of is applied to the capacitor and the rotating plate is displaced by a small angle of about its rotation axis. Then the time taken by it to get back to its original position is independent of
Note:
Neglect gravity.
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There would be fringing fields as we take out the dielectric by a small angle say θ . We calculate the torque on the dielectric as follows.
Let an external agent displace it. Then, W a g e n t + W b a t t e r y + W c a p a c i t o r = 0 .
So τ d θ + d C V 2 − 1 / 2 d C V 2 = 0 .
So τ = − 1 / 2 V 2 d θ d C .
Now C = 2 d ( θ + k ( π − θ ) ) r 2 ϵ .
Using this yields τ = 1 / ( 4 d ) × V 2 r 2 ϵ ( k − 1 ) .
So in the absence of the external agent, the torque applied by the capacitor tries to bring the dielectric back to the initial position. Since τ is constant we have τ = I α . And it's easy to conclude that I = ψ M r 2 ( ψ is a constant say here ψ = 1 / 2 , M is the mass of dielectric plate)
Time required is thus t = √ ( 2 θ / α ) . Plugging the values calculated, we get the time to be independent of the Radius. This was just a mathematical approach although one could simply conclude from physical interpretations. (say dimensional analysis), t = √ ( 8 θ ψ M × d / ϵ V 2 ( k − 1 ) )