On your white board, draw a prediction for several of the equipotentials for a parallel plate capacitor formed by two parallel conductors as shown. There are three equipotentials that you can draw exactly. Suppose for instance that the right-hand bar is at +3 Volts and the other one is at 0 Volts (grounded). Then which three equipotentials do you know right away? Draw them in your picture and also include your estimates for at least two other equipotentials.

On your white board, draw a prediction for several of the equipotentials for a parallel plate capacitor formed by two parallel conductors as shown. There are three equipotentials that you can draw exactly. Suppose for instance that the right-hand bar is at +3 Volts and the other one is at 0 Volts (grounded). Then which three equipotentials do you know right away? Draw them in your picture and also include your estimates for at least two other equipotentials.

College Physics

1st Edition

ISBN:9781938168000

Author:Paul Peter Urone, Roger Hinrichs

Publisher:Paul Peter Urone, Roger Hinrichs

Chapter18: Electric Charge And Electric Field

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 19CQ: The discussion of the electric field between two parallel conducting plates, in this module states...

See similar textbooks

Similar questions

An air-filled capacitor is charged, then disconnected from the power supply, and finally connected to a voltmeter. Explain how and why the potential difference changes when a dielectric is inserted between the plates of the capacitor.
A simple and common technique for accelerating electrons is shown in Figure 18.55, where there is a uniform electric field between two plates. Electrons are released, usually from a hot filament, near the negative plate, and there is a small hole in the positive plate that allows the electrons to continue moving. (a) Calculate the acceleration of the electorn if the field strength is 2.50104 N/C. (b) Explain why the electron will not be pulled back to the positive plate once it moves through the hole.
A bare helium nucleus has two positive charges and a mass of 6.6410-27 kg. (a) Calculate its kinetic energy in joules at 2.00% of the speed of light. (b) What is this in electron volts? (C) What voltage would be needed to obtain this energy?
Study Figure 23.3 and the accompanying text discussion of charging by induction. When the grounding wire is touched to the rightmost point on the sphere in Figure 23.3c, electrons are drained away from the sphere to leave the sphere positively charged. Suppose the grounding wire is touched to the leftmost point on the sphere instead. (a) Will electrons still drain away, moving closer to the negatively charged rod as they do so? (b) What kind of charge, if any, remains on the sphere?
Two parallel conducting plates are separated by 10.0 cm, and one of them is taken to be at zero volts. (a) What is the electric field strength between them, if the potential 8.00 cm from the zero volt plate (and 2.00 cm from the other) is 450 V? (b) What is the voltage between the plates?
Assume you want to increase the maximum operating voltage of a parallel-plate capacitor. Describe how you can do that with a fixed plate separation.
It the voltage between two points is zero, can a test charge be moved between them with zero net work being done? Can this necessarily be done without exerting a force? Explain.
What is an equipotential line? What is an equipotential surface?
The discussion of the electric field between two parallel conducting plates, in this module states that edge effects are less important if the plates are close together. What does close mean? That is, is the actual plate separation crucial, or is the ratio of plate separation to plate area crucial?
The naturally occurring charge on the ground on a fine day out in the open country is -1.00nC/m2. (a) What is the electric field relative to ground at a height of 3.00 m? (b) Calculate the electric potential at this height. (C) Sketch electric field and equipotential lines for this scenario.
When charged particles are separated by an infinite distance, the electric potential energy of the pair is zero. When the particles are brought close, the electric potential energy of a pair with the same sign is positive, whereas the electric potential energy of a pair with opposite signs is negative. Give a physical explanation of this statement.
Your friend gets really excited by the idea of making a lightning rod or maybe just a sparking toy by connecting two spheres as shown in Figure 7.39, and making R2so small that the electric field is greater than the dielectric strength of air, just from the usual 150 V/m electric field near the surface of the Earth. If R1is 10 cm. how small does R2to be, and does this seem practical? (Hint: recall the calculation for electric field at the surface of a conductor from Gauss's Law.)