[TCML] Capacitor Conundrum

[David Speck]

Phil,

I've seen the dissected capacitor demonstrated very impressively at Ed 
Wingate's Teslathon.  His uses flat metal plates, and a thin sheet of 
mylar as the dielectric. 

You can pick up the mylar sheet, and if you run your fingers along the 
sides, you can feel a static charge.  Because the sheet is an insulator, 
it would be unlikely that you would totally discharge it by touching a 
small portion of it. 

Dave
> If the charge is stored on the surface of the  dielectric, then why does 
> freely handling it not discharge it? Or is the  experimenter assumed to be of 
> low capacitance and well-isolated?
>  
>     Might dielectric relaxation play a part in this as  well?
>  
> -Phil LaBudde