Recent content by jonathan.15

Thank you guys for clearing things up. Also, I was assuming the charges were equally far apart from one another like at the vertices of an equilateral triangle and that they all had the same magnitude of charge. In which case the U would be negative

I also don't know what is meant by ideal pint charges, I'm taking an introductory college E&M physics course so I assume they are ideal.

Yes I am referring to electric potential energy of a group of point charges, say 2 negative and 1 positive. This group of charges will have a net negative potential energy. What does this mean? What will happen?

If a group of point charges as a whole, has positive potential energy, what does that mean? What will happen if the point charges are free to move?

This is my final step in reducing the circuit, so now this makes sense that the resistance would be 20, I kept thinking that current would not flow flow from a down to b because they were separated but they are connected

Because there is no wire connecting points A and B I thought this is an open circuit, which has infinite resistance?

The question asks to find the Equivalent resistance R(ab) for the circuit. Is this a trick question? Because I thought it is an open circuit and therefore the resistance between a and b would be infinite. The answer in the book is 20 ohms, please explain if possible

What is the physical meaning of an object to be in stable equilibrium? Would it make sense to say that the object wants to stay at that position and any movement will cause the restoring force to move the object back to equilibrium?

You lift a 50 lb weight by a distance of 4 ft so you do 200 foot-pounds of work. You then hold the weight and walk a horizontal distance of 4 feet, does this require an additional 200 foot-pounds of work? Please excuse the units, this question came from a calculus book.