🔍 Key Concepts

• Relationship between capacitance, plate area, plate spacing, and dielectric constant • Physical meaning of dielectric constant (relative permittivity compared to vacuum/air) • How substituting a different insulating material between the plates changes stored charge for the same voltage

💭 Think About

• Write or recall the basic formula for the capacitance of a parallel-plate capacitor and identify where the dielectric constant appears in that formula • Imagine keeping plate size and spacing the same but swapping air for a material with a higher dielectric constant—what happens to the ability to store charge? • Consider whether capacitance should be stable and predictable with a given material, or if it would normally fluctuate randomly

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify whether capacitance depends linearly, inversely, or not at all on the dielectric constant in the standard formula • Check if any choice suggests random or unstable behavior that would contradict the predictable physics of capacitors with fixed geometry and material • Confirm you are thinking about capacitance, not voltage rating, leakage, or other secondary properties of the dielectric