Electrostatic measurements of low capacitance changes in a parallel plate capacitor

This paper describes an electrostatic experimental setup to measure the capacitance change when an uncharged object of arbitrary shape is inserted into a parallel plate capacitor. The employed measurement technique is discussed in detail, and measurements on two conducting spheres and two conducting circular cylinders of finite height are presented and compared with numerical simulations. It is concluded that the experimental setup is capable of detecting capacitance changes down to 10^-17 F.