When a dielectric is placed between charged plates, the polarization of the medium produces an electric field opposing the field of the charges on the plate. The dielectric constant k is defined to reflect the amount of reduction of effective electric field as shown below. The permittivity is a characteristic of space, and the relative permittivity or "dielectric constant" is a way to characterize the reduction in effective field because of the polarization of the dielectric. The capacitance of the parallel plate arrangement is increased by factor k.
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