Insulators And Capacitors

In this lesson we use the same apparatus used in the first lesson to show that insulators do not conduct electricity. We then use a large potential difference to show how electrical breakdown takes place. Insulators are used in capacitors. We show how these electronic components store charge. We suggest that you give your learners the opportunity to use the equations derived to practice solving problems. We end the lesson by investigating how the potential difference and current changes during charging and discharging. If you want to extend your more able learners you may want to discuss the idea of the time constant with them and show them that the time taken to charge a capacitor is equal to the capacitance multiplied by the resistance of the resistor in the RC circuit.

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