Electric field due to three point charges

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the electric field due to three point charges, focusing on the intensity values and their vector representation. Participants are exploring how to combine these electric fields to find the resultant intensity using vector addition.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Mathematical reasoning, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to calculate the electric field intensities for each charge and is seeking help with vector addition to find the resultant electric field. Some participants question the need to express the electric fields as vectors and suggest decomposing them into components for proper addition.

Discussion Status

The discussion is active, with participants providing guidance on expressing electric fields as vectors and suggesting methods for vector addition. There are indications of confusion regarding the mathematical process of reducing three vector components into two resultant values.

Contextual Notes

Participants are navigating the challenge of vector decomposition and the application of the parallelogram law in the context of electric fields. There is a mention of previous knowledge regarding vector components, which may not be fully clear to the original poster.

emmanual
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Homework Statement
Three point charges q1(+3C), q2(+4C), q3(+3C) are located in a square-shaped form with a distance of 2cm with a 90° cone in every edge(picture in the attached file 39png). Calculate the resultant intensity of point P.
Relevant Equations
Coulomb's law :
F=q1q2/4πεr2
Parallelogram law:
R=√(P²+ Q²+ 2PQcosα)
I've calculated the intensity for every point charge which are
EA = 6.741 x 10¹³ NC¯¹
EB = 4.494 x 10¹¹ NC¯¹
EC = 6.741 x 10¹³ NC¯¹
and I am pretty sure about this far but I am struggling to calculate the X-axis intensity and Y-axis intensity to find the entire approximate intensity with the parallelogram law.
PLEASE HELPPP!
2022-02-14 (39).png
 

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Welcome to PF. :smile:

It looks like you have a good start, but those electric field values should be vectors so that you can do the vector sum at P. Can you express all 3 of them as vectors in rectangular coordinates at P so that you can add them up component-wise?
 
berkeman said:
Welcome to PF. :smile:

It looks like you have a good start, but those electric field values should be vectors so that you can do the vector sum at P. Can you express all 3 of them as vectors in rectangular coordinates at P so that you can add them up component-wise?
I've already expressed all 3 in vectors in the first file w the arrows on p and identified them with the EA, EB and EC and which I used to express the resultant intensity too and Idk how I'm supposed to add it up that's where I'm stuck😭 like I know it's supposed to be 2 values, not 3 and IDK how to reduce it into 2 values which will be valid mathematically
 
Are you saying YDK how to decompose a vector into its components? The magnitude of the vector is represented as the hypotenuse of a right triangle with the x and y components as the two right sides. Have you not seen this before?
 
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to keep things simple, find separate electrics field of all the charges and in the end add them to get a net electric field due to all the charges, if you want to do other way around its up to you.
 

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