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Re: Capacitor Charge-Where is it?

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> >From huffman-at-fnal.govTue Oct 29 22:47:16 1996
> Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 11:03:10 -0600
> From: huffman <huffman-at-fnal.gov>
> To: List Tesla <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Capacitor Charge-Were is it?
> 
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> Hi All,
> I want to thank everyone for the replies. For me this has been a very
> interesting discussion although I still am having problems with it. It
> seems like the chicken and the egg question to me. You can't have a
> capacitor without a conductive plate/s and a dielectric. If I say the
> charge is on the plates, I probably should say the charge is on the surface
> of the plate/s, since that would put it in the dielectric. If you dump
> charge on the inside of a conductor it moves to the surface, and I
> understand the charge cannot be in the metal plate. I still envision all
> those electrons crowding around on the metal plate of a capacitor.
> Dielectrics are strong, dielectrics are impressive, but it's conductors
> that do all the work. (sorry Mr. Clemens)
> 
> In a realm we cannot see, can we really know?
> Sockit to me, just don't kick me off the list.
> Dave Huffman
> 
> P.S. The two capacitor problem...
> The lost energy goes into making heat, light, EM radiation, sound, etc. Why
> 1/2?
> I know it's not the same situation, but does half the energy also get lost
> going from the Cp to Cs?
> Can I transfer energy from one cap to another with minimal loss?

Hmmm, now then...

I'm sitting in my office, looking upwards at a number of brightly
colored rubber (latex?) (dielectric!) balloons, which seem to be
attached to the ceiling.  No metal conductors were used in the charging
of these dielectrics, just rubbed them against my hair, and for short
term practical purposes, there is no conductor to keep the charge
applied to the surface of the balloons as they remain attracted to the
ceiling.  I suppose that if I wanted to steal this charge from the
balloon, I could use a metal wand connected to ground, rub the balloons
with it, and take the charge off of it.  But it seems that the humidity
in the air affects the charge maintained by the balloons, in a
deteriorating sort of way, and one after another, they lose their
charge, and the force of gravity eventually wins the battle of opposing
force as the charge diminishes.  Hmmm...  a simple capacitor, without
benefit of metal plates...

doug