<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

The voltages in both of these examples could be measured with a meter that compares the measured potential with ground potential. Ground potential is often taken to be zero (instead of taking the potential at infinity to be zero). It is the potential difference between two points that is of importance, and very often there is a tacit assumption that some reference point, such as Earth or a very distant point, is at zero potential. As noted in Electric Potential Energy: Potential Difference , this is analogous to taking sea level as h = 0 size 12{h=0} {} when considering gravitational potential energy, PE g = mgh size 12{"PE" rSub { size 8{g} } = ital "mgh"} {} .

Section summary

  • Electric potential of a point charge is V = kQ / r size 12{V= ital "kQ"/r} {} .
  • Electric potential is a scalar, and electric field is a vector. Addition of voltages as numbers gives the voltage due to a combination of point charges, whereas addition of individual fields as vectors gives the total electric field.

Conceptual questions

In what region of space is the potential due to a uniformly charged sphere the same as that of a point charge? In what region does it differ from that of a point charge?

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Can the potential of a non-uniformly charged sphere be the same as that of a point charge? Explain.

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Problems&Exercises

A 0.500 cm diameter plastic sphere, used in a static electricity demonstration, has a uniformly distributed 40.0 pC charge on its surface. What is the potential near its surface?

144 V

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

What is the potential 0 . 530 × 10 –10 m size 12{0 "." "530" times "10" rSup { size 8{ - 10} } `m} {} from a proton (the average distance between the proton and electron in a hydrogen atom)?

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

(a) A sphere has a surface uniformly charged with 1.00 C. At what distance from its center is the potential 5.00 MV? (b) What does your answer imply about the practical aspect of isolating such a large charge?

(a) 1.80 km

(b) A charge of 1 C is a very large amount of charge; a sphere of radius 1.80 km is not practical.

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

How far from a 1 . 00 µC size 12{1 "." "00" mC} {} point charge will the potential be 100 V? At what distance will it be 2.00 × 10 2 V ? size 12{2 "." "00" times "10" rSup { size 8{ 2} } `V} {}

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

What are the sign and magnitude of a point charge that produces a potential of –2.00 V at a distance of 1.00 mm?

–2 . 22 × 10 13 C size 12{2 "." "22" times "10" rSup { size 8{ - 13} } `C} {}

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

If the potential due to a point charge is 5 . 00 × 10 2 V size 12{5 "." "00" times "10" rSup { size 8{ 2} } `V} {} at a distance of 15.0 m, what are the sign and magnitude of the charge?

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

In nuclear fission, a nucleus splits roughly in half. (a) What is the potential 2 . 00 × 10 14 m size 12{2 "." "00" times "10" rSup { size 8{ - 14} } `m} {} from a fragment that has 46 protons in it? (b) What is the potential energy in MeV of a similarly charged fragment at this distance?

(a) 3 . 31 × 10 6 V size 12{3 "." "31" times "10" rSup { size 8{6} } `V} {}

(b) 152 MeV

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

A research Van de Graaff generator has a 2.00-m-diameter metal sphere with a charge of 5.00 mC on it. (a) What is the potential near its surface? (b) At what distance from its center is the potential 1.00 MV? (c) An oxygen atom with three missing electrons is released near the Van de Graaff generator. What is its energy in MeV at this distance?

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

An electrostatic paint sprayer has a 0.200-m-diameter metal sphere at a potential of 25.0 kV that repels paint droplets onto a grounded object. (a) What charge is on the sphere? (b) What charge must a 0.100-mg drop of paint have to arrive at the object with a speed of 10.0 m/s?

(a) 2 . 78 × 10 - 7 C size 12{2 "." "78" times "10" rSup { size 8{-7} } `C} {}

(b) 2 . 00 × 10 - 10 C size 12{2 "." "00" times "10" rSup { size 8{-10} } `C} {}

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

In one of the classic nuclear physics experiments at the beginning of the 20th century, an alpha particle was accelerated toward a gold nucleus, and its path was substantially deflected by the Coulomb interaction. If the energy of the doubly charged alpha nucleus was 5.00 MeV, how close to the gold nucleus (79 protons) could it come before being deflected?

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

(a) What is the potential between two points situated 10 cm and 20 cm from a 3 . 0 µC size 12{3 "." 0 mC} {} point charge? (b) To what location should the point at 20 cm be moved to increase this potential difference by a factor of two?

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Unreasonable Results

(a) What is the final speed of an electron accelerated from rest through a voltage of 25.0 MV by a negatively charged Van de Graaff terminal?

(b) What is unreasonable about this result?

(c) Which assumptions are responsible?

(a) 2.96 × 10 9 m/s

(b) This velocity is far too great. It is faster than the speed of light.

(c) The assumption that the speed of the electron is far less than that of light and that the problem does not require a relativistic treatment produces an answer greater than the speed of light.

Got questions? Get instant answers now!

Questions & Answers

how do you get the 2/50
Abba Reply
number of sport play by 50 student construct discrete data
Aminu Reply
width of the frangebany leaves on how to write a introduction
Theresa Reply
Solve the mean of variance
Veronica Reply
Step 1: Find the mean. To find the mean, add up all the scores, then divide them by the number of scores. ... Step 2: Find each score's deviation from the mean. ... Step 3: Square each deviation from the mean. ... Step 4: Find the sum of squares. ... Step 5: Divide the sum of squares by n – 1 or N.
kenneth
what is error
Yakuba Reply
Is mistake done to something
Vutshila
Hy
anas
hy
What is the life teble
anas
hy
Jibrin
statistics is the analyzing of data
Tajudeen Reply
what is statics?
Zelalem Reply
how do you calculate mean
Gloria Reply
diveving the sum if all values
Shaynaynay
let A1,A2 and A3 events be independent,show that (A1)^c, (A2)^c and (A3)^c are independent?
Fisaye Reply
what is statistics
Akhisani Reply
data collected all over the world
Shaynaynay
construct a less than and more than table
Imad Reply
The sample of 16 students is taken. The average age in the sample was 22 years with astandard deviation of 6 years. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the age of the population.
Aschalew Reply
Bhartdarshan' is an internet-based travel agency wherein customer can see videos of the cities they plant to visit. The number of hits daily is a normally distributed random variable with a mean of 10,000 and a standard deviation of 2,400 a. what is the probability of getting more than 12,000 hits? b. what is the probability of getting fewer than 9,000 hits?
Akshay Reply
Bhartdarshan'is an internet-based travel agency wherein customer can see videos of the cities they plan to visit. The number of hits daily is a normally distributed random variable with a mean of 10,000 and a standard deviation of 2,400. a. What is the probability of getting more than 12,000 hits
Akshay
1
Bright
Sorry i want to learn more about this question
Bright
Someone help
Bright
a= 0.20233 b=0.3384
Sufiyan
a
Shaynaynay
How do I interpret level of significance?
Mohd Reply
It depends on your business problem or in Machine Learning you could use ROC- AUC cruve to decide the threshold value
Shivam
how skewness and kurtosis are used in statistics
Owen Reply
yes what is it
Taneeya
Got questions? Join the online conversation and get instant answers!
Jobilize.com Reply

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, College physics. OpenStax CNX. Jul 27, 2015 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11406/1.9
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'College physics' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask