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You are working in a laboratory, using very sensitive measurement equipment. Your supervisor has explained that the equipment is also very sensitive to electrical discharge from human operators. Specification tables for the equipment indicate that an electrical discharge providing even a very small amount of energy of 250 μJ is enough to damage the equipment. Your supervisor wants to install an apparatus that will be used to remove the electrical charge from individuals’ bodies before they touch the equipment. To do this, she asks you to estimate (a) the capacitance of the human body and determine (b) the charge on the body and (c) the electric potential of the body, relative to a point infinitely far away, corresponding to the energy transfer that will damage the equipment.
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Physics for Scientists and Engineers
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