Insulator Definition and 126 Threads

I'VE SEEN MANY QUESTION WROTE C/m, WHAT IS C? CURRENT? Consider an insulating sphere with 10μC of charge uniformly distributed through its volume. The sphere is surrounded by a conducting spherical shell that has a total charge of −3μC. Outside the conucting shell is an insulating shell with...

This is a problem from Yale OCW (Shankar). The solution he gives is as follows: Sure, this makes sense. However... Superimposed rho and negative rho with radius R/2 means there is no charge enclosed in the cavity... therefore no charge -> no flux -> no electric field.

Suppose we put a strong insulator under our feet. In this case, when we connect the test light to the electrical outlet, the light of the test light lights turn on. I wonder how the electric current can pass through the strong insulator. If we calculate, the electric current cannot be more than...

So, when a radiowave strike a surface, whether the wave get reflected or not depend a lot on the characteristic impendence of it. If the radiowave travel from free space to a material. Any mismatch from the approx. 377 ohms impedance of free space (Z0) will result in a reflected wave; the...

Since both cylinders have the same material, this implies the density is the same. Length is also the same based on the question. We only need to compare the radii for resistance. R2 = pi ((2b)^2 - (2a)^2) R1 = pi (b^2 - a^2) R2/R1 = 4, so my answer is C. But, the given answer is A. Where did I...

If I have a metal electric conducting ball the size of an average snowball (Happy Holidays) and give it a charge of say 0.1 Coulombs and set it on a wooden table, will it ever discharge if not touched by anything else? If so, if it is wrapped in an electrical insulator, will it ever discharge...

Well, I have one nice problem. I have 30x10mm busbar, and Isc=30kA. I must place this busbars in electrical panel, but I have a problem with insulators. Can I use a red insolators as it's showed on picture, or I should use special holders for busbar system. Another problem is: When I use such...

What would happen if we put two diodes together with an insulator in between? p/n/insulator/p/n

I connected a PVC insulated alligator clip test lead to a 12V (give 20V) DC power supply positive terminal and a multimeter. After that I connected an other one to the multimeter ground, and a third one to the power supply negative terminal. I turned the multimeter to DC V measure mode. When I...

Hello! I would need advice on insulator material I can use for an ion Thomson Parabola spectrometer. I would need to use an insulating sheet of 225x600x1,5mm and a smaller sheet of 100x100x1,5mm I found PBN having an incredible dielctric strength, but seems like it cannot be manufactured in...

Homework Statement A conducting sphere has a radius of 2.25 m and carries a positive surplus charge of 35.0 mC. A protective layer of barium titanate is applied to the surface of the sphere to make it safe for laboratory workers nearby. Safety considerations dictate that the potential...

Can anyone guide me about how to ground an insulator using Ansys Maxwell 2015?

Generally, a material is metal or insulator is simply determined by the gap. But if we view it in another way, to measure the resistance in different direction, says x and y, and there are usually different. And then measure the resistance change with temperature. Usually, the resistances goes...

Could one make a negatively-charged insulator with the extra electrons trapped all the way through its volume by building it up layer by layer with electrons "sprayed" onto each layer as it was constructed? I guess the electrons would be trapped in empty atomic orbitals within the material - is...

There are some famous materials is determined as TI induced by SOC, like graphene and so on. But from some formula, for instance, Kane-Fu formula, they just need parities to get Z2 number. So I wonder if there is a known TI with weak soc.

Hello Everyone, I was really curious to know what really is Mott Transition and How it works. I searched for hours but couldn't find any helpful answer. Somewhere it was suggested that it is a bridge between Quantum and Classical Mechanics and it is due to electron interaction where electron...

Homework Statement Hi all. I'm a teacher and one of my students asked me a question I couldn't answer today. It's a multiple choice question: A neutral object is attracted to an electrically charged rod. The two are not touching. The neutral object: A. is a conductor B. is an insulator C...

Homework Statement An Ohmic material with some conductivity has a uniform current density J initially. Let's say the current is flowing in the direction of the z-axis. A small insulating sphere with radius R is brought inside the material. Find the potential outside the sphere. Homework...

(This is a two part question.) Ok, so I have been trying to find what property of a material determines if it is a good conductor or not. I'm hoping to go beyond just if it can conduct electricity or not. One of the explanations I have found is the length of the band gap. Is this right or...

Just as the title asks, I wonder if there can be any electric field inside an insulator when a point change is placed near it. If so, why?

I looked through this forum post for an answer to my problem. It gave me enough insight to try and come to some conclusions but I'm still confused on some parts here and there about how I got my final answer. 1. Homework Statement A uniformly charged, straight filament 7.70 m in length has a...

Ques : If a neutral metal sphere placed on an insulating stand is touched by a charged plastic rod , does the metal sphere acquire any charge ? I think that by simply touching the sphere by insulating rod , the metal should not acquire any charge as the charges on the rod are immobile unlike a...

Homework Statement Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution [/B] This is a quite a fundamental question in electrostatics and I felt pretty embarrassed getting it wrong .I thought correct option was d) . Could someone help me understand how conductor could acquire charge as charges...

Hi, is anyone familiar with topological insulator? I read an interesting paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1703.09365, Black hole as topological insulator Abstract: Black holes are extraordinary massive objects which can be described classically by general relativity, and topological insulators are...

Homework Statement Insulator has a 3 cm radius and is a sphere. It has a total charge of -4.2 uC. I need to find the charge density of the insulator. Homework Equations sigma = total charge / volume... I think? The Attempt at a Solution After using the above equation, I got -3.714E-8 C/m I...

Homework Statement An infinitely long solid insulating cylinder of radius a = 4.3 cm is positioned with its symmetry axis along the z-axis as shown. The cylinder is uniformly charged with a charge density ρ = 28 μC/m3. Concentric with the cylinder is a cylindrical conducting shell of inner...

I'm no physicist, but I found this material to be interesting. Samarium Hexaboride is a crystal that exhibits conductive properties at room temperature and insulating properties when cooled to below minus 223 degrees Celsius. A layman's article...

Hi all My question: I have read: Topological Insulators: Dirac Equation in Condensed Matters But also I have read: Observation of a Discrete Time Crystal Is it different situations ?

"a material to conduct an electrical current with zero resistance" ? Is this not ohm's law to a logical extreme?, or am I missing something?

Homework Statement Consider the metal-vacuum interface located at z = 0,the metal filling the entire half-space z ≥ 0, vacuum filling (!?) the half-space z < 0. The dielectric function in the metal in the long-wavelength limit is given by: where ε0 is the vacuum permittivity. In the metal a...

I just have a few conceptual questions: Is it as difficult to remove electrons from an insulator as it is to add to it? I understand insulators have a lower permittivity than conductors, and that they still allow charges to build upon the surface. However, I read that when you rub an insulator...

Homework Statement An insulator is in the shape of a spherical shell. The insulator is defined by an inner radius a = 4 cm and an outer radius b = 6 cm and carries a total charge of Q = + 9 C (1 C = 10-6 C). You may assume that the charge is distributed uniformly throughout the volume of the...

I haven't studied materials in depth, but I would assume that something like rubber would make a good insulator because of its bounciness. The molecules of a substance contained in a rubber container would collide with the walls of the container in a very elastic collision, and the kinetic...

So this is kind of a crazy hypothetical, but what would happen if you surrounded the sun in an invulnerable, perfectly insulating sphere that prevents anything from leaving. I imagine that as the sun heats up, the rate of fusion increases and the life time of the sun decreases. But that's about...

If a negatively charged Styrofoam plate is brought towards pieces of paper placed on an insulator (ex. a piece of paper), attraction occurs. Repulsion occurs if pieces of aluminum foil, which is a conductor, are placed on an insulator. What would occur if the pieces of paper and aluminum foil...

In the past, reciprocating engine platforms have prevented the use of thermal insulating materials like ceramics due to, among other reasons, abrasion and vibration. One of the problems in the past has been the movement of the piston and piston rings over the cylinder wall where the insulating...

How does insulator's density affect its thermal conductivity? For example, considering such insulators as rock wool, It seems that the thermal conductivity should increase with an increase in density (due to elimination of 'air pockets'). However, experimental results, in many cases, look more...

I have been really fascinated with the dielectric breakdown artwork by Bert Hickman seen here. He is using a 5MeV accelerator to embed electrons in acrylic. He then discharges them to create beautiful fractal patterns. I emailed him last year asking how to calculate the penetration depth of...

I am interested in simply simulating in MATLAB or an open source software, the following qualitative explanation of the band theory. I want to show to an undergraduate course maybe a simple applet with the difference between semiconductor (Si) and insulator (Diamond for example) . do you have...

Hello. Is there a review paper about topological insulator which is written for non-physics major people? If it will be helpful, I know classical physics, basics about band theory and little bit of modern physics, and have just finished learning quantum mechanics (with a book written by...

Homework Statement Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution [/B] I suppose the answers are A and C .A depicting the eletric field lines and C equipotential lines . Is it correct ? I arrived at the answer by eliminating choices B and D . Since electric field lines cannot intersect...

Hi every one, I face with a question on my works, As you know there in many articles Physicist introduce a material that has zero gap without spin-orbit coupling (SOC). By applying the SOC, a relatively small gap (0.1 eV) is opened and it becomes topological insulator. My question, Is that...

Hi every body, I faced a paradox. The topological insulator is robust against a potential that does not breaks the TRS. But in the original work of Kane-Mele (PRL 95, 146802), the "staggered sublattice potential" that does not breaks the TRS,, makes zigzag ribbon trivial insulator (figure 1 in...

Hello, I would like to understand why "bushings" that are used as insulation for high power electric cables in transformers, and which are often made out of porcelain or glass, I would like to understand why they have this form of "skirts" ? Why aren't they just as a simple cylinder?

I am looking to improve the thermal insulation on one of my favorite glass mugs. I am choosing between a silicone glove or a neoprene wrap. What is the difference between a silicone baking mat and silicone rubber? Does silicone or neoprene have better thermal insulation?

Homework Statement I was looking for some practice problems in my textbook and found this problem that I was just a little stuck on. I drew the diagram from my textbook with the givens of the problem. Homework Equations ∲E*dA = Q (inside) / ɛ0 The Attempt at a Solution For r less...

So I just started Physics 2 Electricity and Magnetism and I'm already scared for my life. The professor first did a demonstration where he charged up a Teflon rod on some sort of cloth and moved an aluminium can with the rod. I understand how that happens. The can is a metal and conductor so the...

Okay- first off, I know enough science to sound like an idiot, so please be gentle :-) Now, IF you had a dragon that generated an electrical charge, it wouldn't be able to direct it, lightning-style, without being able to generate an opposite charge at it's target- right? So in essence, to shot...

Hello, For the past 2 days I've been looking for a resource discussing the metal insulator transition using percolation theory. (The next part treats the Anderson and Mott models) I'm studying for a course of solid state physics where this is mentioned/summarized. The problem is that the...

An infinitely long solid insulating cylinder of radius a = 5.2 cm is positioned with its symmetry axis along the z-axis as shown. The cylinder is uniformly charged with a charge density ρ = 23 μC/m3. Concentric with the cylinder is a cylindrical conducting shell of inner radius b = 14.2 cm, and...