Comment on Anon uses rare rocks to get R34

• swag_money@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  so to my understanding the ideal dielectric is a perfect insulator. dielectrics however have some free electrons and the ability to become polarized in the presence of an electric field. this has the benefit of increasing the charge carrying surface area in something like a capacitor. so i think dielectrics are a subset of insulators and by definition do not pass current/free electrons.

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  • theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I mean, there’s no such thing as a perfect insulator (at least nothing we can build with)

    It definitely resists the movement of free elections through… But think a capacitor let’s ions flow, grease is a sort of fluid…

    So I’m thinking it must be a material that let’s atoms move around to some degree, but resists the transfer of electrons

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    • swag_money@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      I mean, there’s no such thing as a perfect insulator
      I’m well aware that nothing is perfect. i was talking about definitions :p

      It definitely resists the movement of free elections through… But think a capacitor let’s ions flow, grease is a sort of fluid…
      the two terminals of a capacitor are insulated from eachother but they can pass alternating current via capacitive coupling. I’m not sure what you mean about flowing ions in grease. do you mean electrolyte? like in a battery?

      So I’m thinking it must be a material that let’s atoms move around to some degree, but resists the transfer of electrons
      you’re describing electrical resistance :p

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      • theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        Okay, so like ac in a capacitor smooths current, right? As opposed to DC, where it stores energy?

        Imagine a positive and negative terminal with goo in the middle. Atoms move around it randomly in diffusion, but charged atoms are pulled left then right in oscillation. On average, they’d be in the middle

        Those ions impart positive charge to the side they’re on, so if your cycle is off in one direction or the other, they’d be pushed to the opposite conductor - smoothing the current

        I’m not just talking about an insulator - I’m talking about an insulator fluid enough for ions to travel through based on the charges of the…I forget the word in this context, it’s anode or cathode

        Like rubber? Great insulator, but it’s solid - you can’t make a capacitor out of it (or a gate, but that’s more about heat conductivity). So dielectric insulators must be fluid to some degree, right?

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