Two charges 2 μC and –2 μC are placed at points A and B 6 cm apart.
(a) Identify an equipotential surface of the system.
(b) What is the direction of the electric field at every point on this surface?
Two charges 2 μC and –2 μC are placed at points A and B 6 cm apart.
(a) Identify an equipotential surface of the system.
(b) What is the direction of the electric field at every point on this surface?
Solution and Explanation
a) The situation is represented in the given figure.
An equipotential surface is the plane on which total potential is zero everywhere. This plane is normal to line AB. The plane is located at the midpoint of line AB because the magnitude of charges is the same.
(b) The direction of the electric field at every point on this surface is normal to the plane in the direction of AB.
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Concepts Used:
Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance
Electrostatic Potential
The potential of a point is defined as the work done per unit charge that results in bringing a charge from infinity to a certain point.
Some major things that we should know about electric potential:
- They are denoted by V and are a scalar quantity.
- It is measured in volts.
Capacitance
The ability of a capacitor of holding the energy in form of an electric charge is defined as capacitance. Similarly, we can also say that capacitance is the storing ability of capacitors, and the unit in which they are measured is “farads”.
Read More: Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance
The capacitor is in Series and in Parallel as defined below;
In Series
Both the Capacitors C1 and C2 can easily get connected in series. When the capacitors are connected in series then the total capacitance that is Ctotal is less than any one of the capacitor’s capacitance.
In Parallel
Both Capacitor C1 and C2 are connected in parallel. When the capacitors are connected parallelly then the total capacitance that is Ctotal is any one of the capacitor’s capacitance.