Chapter 26, Problem 37EAP

A typical cell has a layer of negative charge on the inner

surface of the cell wall and a layer of positive charge on the

outside surface, thus making the cell wall a capacitor. What is

the capacitance of a -diameter cell with a 7.0-nm-thick

cell wall whose dielectric constant is 9.0? Because the

cell's diameter is much larger than the wall thickness, it is rea-

sonable to ignore the curvature of the cell and think of it as a

parallel-plate capacitor.