The Physics 242 Puzzler

The capacitor shown above has a removable dielectric slab with dielectric constant K = 2. The slab completely fills the volume between the plates. The capacitor is connected to a battery that maintains a constant voltage (V) at all times. With the slab in place, there is charge Q on the plates. The dielectric slab is now removed from between the plates. Answer the following questions:

  1. Did the charge on the plates of the capacitor change? If so, where did it go?
  2. Did the energy stored in the capacitor change?
  3. Was any energy supplied from or to the battery?
  4. Was positive, negative or zero work performed by the person removing the slab?

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