Conductors and Capacitors

Name __________________

1. The electric field inside a conductor is always ______. The electric potential on a conductor is always ________. 2. A solid conducting sphere is located between two parallel plates as shown. a. Draw the electric field between the plates, outside the sphere. b. Draw the charge distribution on the sphere. c. What is the electric field inside the sphere?

3. A hollow conducting spherical shell has a smaller conducting sphere with a charge of +Q at its center, as shown.

+Q

a. b. c. d. e. f.

Show the charge distribution on the outside sphere. Sketch the electric field in the empty space inside the shell. Draw the charge distribution on the walls of the shell. Sketch the electric field outside the shell. What is the electric field within the metal of the shell? Sketch a graph of the electric field from the center to a distance of infinity.

4. A solid sphere with a radius of 0.2 meters has a charge of -4C. a. What is the electric field at the surface of the sphere? b. What is the electric potential at the surface of the sphere? c. Sketch graphs of the electric field and electric potential as a function of distance from the center of the sphere. 5. The two conductors, A and B below carry charges of +3 mC and -8 mC. They are touched together. a. What is the net charge on the spheres? b. If the spheres are identical, what will be the charge on each after touching? c. The charges will move until the voltages are equal. (Since when touching they act as a single conductor.) If sphere A has twice the radius of sphere B, what will be the charge on each after touching? 6. A set of parallel plates has a separation of 0.2 meters and an area of 0.1 m2, and is charged to 100 Volts. a. What is the capacitance of the plates? b. How much charge is stored on the plates? c. What is the electric field between the plates? d. What is the force on a proton between the plates? e. A proton starts from rest at the positive plate. How much energy will it gain in moving to the negative plate? f. What is the protons speed when it reaches the negative plate? 7. A capacitor with a separation of D has a charge Q when connected to a battery with an electric potential difference of V. a. Express the original capacitance in terms of Q and V. b. Express the area of the plates in terms of Q, V and D. c. Express the electric field in terms of Q, V and D. d. The distance between the plates is then tripled. i. What will be the new capacitance? ii. What will be the voltage? iii. What will be the charge? iv. What will be the electric field? 8. Point P is 2 meters from a charge of -4mC. a. What is the electric field at P? b. What is the electric potential at P? c. What is the force on a proton at P? d. How much energy is required to move a proton from point P to a very large distance away?

9. Given the charge distribution below, find the electric field at the origin and the electric potential at the origin.
3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Distances in Meters +3C +5C