All Questions
109
questions
0
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4
answers
44
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Comparing Electric Potential Energy of two Charges
I do not know what I am missing here and would appreciate a little help in figuring out the flaw in my logic. I have a row of positive charges and a row of negative charges as shown in the image above....
7
votes
7
answers
4k
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Is it impossible to construct a Faraday cage that can block a *static* electric field?
I think the answer is yes. My reasoning is this: Imagine for argument's sake, we could have a charged negative source that has its field blocked by a Faraday cage. We can transport a positive charge ...
0
votes
1
answer
30
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Apparent contradiction while calculating potential inside shell due to off center charge
Consider the following scenerio$-$
A point charge $Q$ is placed at an off center point $B$ in a spherical shell made out of a conducting material. We are required to find the potential at the center.
...
4
votes
0
answers
58
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Energy in electric field of an electron?
I am just trying to get an intuition for the Griffiths equation no. 2.45, where work done to establish a field E is given by
Say we want to solve it for electric field due to an electron (point-charge)...
1
vote
1
answer
96
views
Potential energy of an electric dipole without any external field
What is potential energy of an electric dipole without any external field?
If its 0 then why? Wouldn't the charges get attracted thus do work so they must have some potential energy.
-1
votes
1
answer
39
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Would it be right to say that “Electric Potential” = the potential energy of an individual unit of charge at a certain point in a electric field?
Any replies from people who actually understand the topic (better than me, to say the least lol) and are able to clarify the topic (unlike my teacher), are highly appreciated and encouraged.
2
votes
4
answers
263
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Electric Potential and Potential Energy
Electric Potential definition is as follows:
Electric potential (also called the electric field potential,
potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as the amount
of work energy needed ...
1
vote
0
answers
60
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Interpretation of Equation of energy stored in continuous charge distribution [duplicate]
In the book "Introduction to Electrodynamics" by David J. Griffiths, $\boldsymbol\S$ 2.4.3$\blacksquare $ The Energy of a Continuous Charge Distribution, I came across this equation for ...
12
votes
5
answers
4k
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Why do we say that electric potential energy is stored in the electric field?
I have been learning electrostatics and came across capacitors. I don't really get why do we say energy is stored in electric field rather than in the charges upon which we or the battery does work. I ...
2
votes
1
answer
284
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Energy stored in a space with electric field is $\tfrac12 \varepsilon E^2$ per unit volume. Why?
I'm a high school student and my book says that once it has been established that a region containing electric field $E$ has energy $\tfrac12 \varepsilon E^2$ per unit volume, the result can be used ...
0
votes
0
answers
28
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Electric potential significance [duplicate]
What is the physical significance of electric potential? I know that over dx length of an electric field it varies but let us assume the field to be uniform, how exactly does the potential still ...
1
vote
1
answer
147
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Confusion pertaining to the electric potential energy
First I'd like to explain why I don't think this question is a duplicate of the many other questions about the electric potential and potential energy. Despite there being many questions and answers ...
0
votes
2
answers
286
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Shouldn't the electric potential energy decrease with separation regardless of whether the charges are positive or negative?
I was revising Electric Fields and it came up that if a positive charge moves in the direction of the electric field (so away from a positive charge), then the electric potential energy will decrease ...
0
votes
0
answers
54
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Energy in electric field calculated in two different ways
The equation for the energy density in a region of space where there is electric field, $\epsilon_0E^2/2$ implies that energy in the electric field can only be positive. Consider, however, the energy ...
1
vote
1
answer
122
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The (electrostatic) force on an extended object
It is well known that, if I have a system of $N$ particles acted upon only by conservative internal and external forces, then I can obtain the force on the $\mathrm{i^{th}}$ particle as
$$\textbf{F}_i ...