Revisiting the charging-capacitor problem

Abstract

The charging capacitor is used as a standard paradigm for illustrating the concept of the Maxwell "displacement current". A certain aspect of the problem, however, is often overlooked. It concerns the conditions for satisfaction of the Faraday-Henry law both in the interior and in the exterior of the capacitor. In this article the situation is analyzed and a recursive process is described for obtaining (at least approximate) solutions of Maxwell's equations inside and outside the capacitor.