Can anyone please help me with those questions? 1.) What relationship can you in
ID: 1412748 • Letter: C
Question
Can anyone please help me with those questions? 1.) What relationship can you infer about the directions of the electric field lines and equipotential lines? That is, are they parallel to each other or are they perpendicular to each other? 2.) How are the shapes of the equipotential lines related to the shapes of the electrodes? 3.) How do the fields and potentials change with distance? (Are they constant, increasing or decreasing?) 4.) For the triangular tear drop conductor, what was the electric field inside the conductor? What is the potential of the conductor? Are these what you might expect?Explanation / Answer
1)At any point in an electric field a test charge must be at some potential. Some nearby point will be at the same potential. So we must be able to draw a line between such points. This, of couse, is an equipotential line. Now the question is Why should this line be perpedicular to the line of electric force passing through the same point? Well the electric field line is a measure of the mechanical force experienced by the test charge. This force is directed along the line. Now suppose we want to move the test charge along an equipotential line. This means there is no change of potential energy so no work is done on the charge. This can only happen if the charge is moved perpendicular to the force exerted upon it by the electric field line. Therefore the equipotential line must be perpendicular to the field line.
3)the relationship between distance and potential is inverse so it increases or decreases