ABSTRACT
Dielectrics or insulators are nonconducting materials, having very little free charges inside them. However, another type of charge, called bound or polarization charges, exist in a polarized dielectric, as atoms and molecules in the dielectric behave like microscopic electric dipoles. Each atom or molecule in a dielectric is electrically neutral. For most dielectrics, centers of "gravity" of the positive and negative charges in an atom or molecule coincide - in the absence of the external electric field. On the entire surface of a polarized dielectric body, there always exist excess surface bound charges, which are positive on some parts of the surface and negative on the other. Every charged capacitor and every system of charged conducting bodies contains a certain amount of energy, which equals the work done in the process of charging the system. This energy is called the electric energy and is related to the charges and potentials of the conducting bodies in the system.
