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Electric Potential and Field Calculations

1) The electric potential at point P due to charges Q and -Q is calculated, and equals 0. 2) The net electric field at point P is determined by resolving the individual electric fields from Q and -Q into horizontal and vertical components, with the vertical components canceling out. 3) The work done and potential energy in bringing a charge q to point P is calculated to be 0, given the net electric potential is 0. 4) The total potential energy of the system consisting of charges Q, -Q, and q is determined to be -kQ^2/a.

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Gowrisankar Rao
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5 views2 pages

Electric Potential and Field Calculations

1) The electric potential at point P due to charges Q and -Q is calculated, and equals 0. 2) The net electric field at point P is determined by resolving the individual electric fields from Q and -Q into horizontal and vertical components, with the vertical components canceling out. 3) The work done and potential energy in bringing a charge q to point P is calculated to be 0, given the net electric potential is 0. 4) The total potential energy of the system consisting of charges Q, -Q, and q is determined to be -kQ^2/a.

Uploaded by

Gowrisankar Rao
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

(a)The electric potential at the point P due to the charges at the vertices Q is,

kQ
V1
a
Here, k is the electrostatic constant and a is distance between the charge Q and the point
P.
The electric potential at the point P due to the charges at the vertices Q is,
kQ
V2
a
Here, a is distance between the charge Q and the point P .
Therefore, the electric potential at the point P due to the two charges at the vertices are as
follows:
V V1 V2
Substituting the values of
V V1 V2

V1 and V2 in the above equation:

kQ kQ

a
a

(b)Resolving the electric field at the point P due to the charges into two components,
then the vertical components of the electric field will be cancelled by each other. Hence,
the net electric field at the point P is equal to the sum of the horizontal component of the
electric field due to the individual charges.
1
E E1x E2 x
The horizontal component of the electric field due to the charge Q at the point P is,
kQ
E1x 2 cos
a
The horizontal component of the electric field due to the charge Q at the point P is,
kQ
E2 x 2 cos
a
Substituting these values in the equation (1), and we get
E E1x E2 x
kQ
kQ
cos 2 cos
2
a
a
kQ
2 2 cos
a

Substituting the numerical values in the above equation, we get


r
kQ
E 2 2 cos 60 x
a
kQ 1
2 2 x
a 2
kQ
x
2
a

(c)Using the definition of the electric potential, and then the work done to bring the
charges from infinity distance to the field point is,
W
V
q
W Vq
Substituting the numerical values in the above equation and we get
W 0 q
0

(d)The potential energy due to the charge Q and q at the point P is,
kQq
U1
a
The potential energy due to the charge Q and q at the point P is,

U2

kQq
a

The potential energy due to the charges Q and Q is,


kQQ
U3
a
kQ 2

a
Therefore, the total potential energy or energy stored in the system of three charges is,
U U1 U 2 U 3

kQ 2
kQq kQq


a
a
a

kQ 2
a

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