physics II

The fluids inside and outside a cell are good conductors separated by the cell wall, which is a dielectric. Thus the cell has capacitance; charge may be stored on its inner and outer surfaces . It is a good approximation to treat the thin charged layer as a parallel-plate capacitor. Typically the wall is 9.50 x 10-9 m thick and has a dielectric constant of 5.00. (a) Find the capacitance per cm2 of cell membrane. (b) Suppose the potential difference across the cell wall is 0.103 V. Find the magnitude of the charge stored on either side of the cell wall per cm2. (c) Find the field strength across the membrane.