What happens to the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor if the separation distance between the plates is halved while plate area remains constant?

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: D. It doubles

  1. Step 1: The capacitance formula for a parallel-plate capacitor is C = epsilon * A / d.
  2. Step 2: If the plate separation d is replaced by d/2: C_new = epsilon A / (d/2) = 2 (epsilon * A / d).
  3. Step 3: Therefore, the capacitance doubles.
Answer
It doubles.
Why not the others: 'It is halved' assumes direct proportionality to separation distance; 'It quadruples' confuses linear distance with an inverse square law; 'It remains unchanged' assumes capacitance depends only on applied voltage.

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