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Answer 1 · 2017-03-24T16:31:16

Permittivity of an material is an electric property it has.

It determines the amount of electric field a charge can produce when placed in it.

Consider two materials with electrical permittivites #epsilon_1# and #epsilon_2#.

When a charged particle #q# is placed inside both of these materials, one finds that, the electric field in material 1 is - (of magnitude)

#E_1 = q/(4piepsilon_1r^2)# where #r# is distance from the charge where the field is measured.

For the second material the field due to the same charge at a same distance #r# is, (magnitude only)

#E_2 = q/(4piepsilon_2r^2)#

Thus, if #epsilon_1 > epsilon_2# then, the field #E_2 > E_1# and vice versa.

So permittivity determines (in a sense) the ability of the medium to respond to electrical effects.

The permittivity of vacuum is denoted as #epsilon_0#.

Thus, the electric field produced by point charge #q# in vacuum is, (magnitude only)

#E = q/(4piepsilon_0r^2)#