Equipotential Surfaces for Different Charge Configurations

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around sketching equipotential surfaces for various charge configurations, including point charges, spherically symmetric charge distributions, uniformly charged sheets, long cylinders, and electric dipoles. Participants are seeking clarification and assistance with their sketches and understanding of the concepts involved.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Problem interpretation, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants express uncertainty about their sketches for specific configurations, particularly for the spherically symmetric charge distribution and the uniformly charged sheet. There are discussions about the implications of Gauss' law and how to visualize the charge distributions in three dimensions.

Discussion Status

Some participants have offered guidance on visualizing the configurations and suggested analogies to gravitational fields. There is an ongoing exploration of how to accurately represent the charge distributions, with multiple interpretations being considered, particularly for the long cylinder and its representation in 2D versus 3D.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention a lack of familiarity with Gauss' law and express difficulty in visualizing the three-dimensional aspects of the problems. There are indications of constraints related to previous knowledge and the challenge of accurately depicting the charge configurations.

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Homework Statement



Sketch the equipotential surfaces which result from the following charge configurations:
(a) a point charge
(b) a spherically symmetric charge distribution
(c) a very large, plane, uniformly-charged sheet
(d) a long, uniformly-charged cylinder
(e) an electric dipole.

sorry I have posted this already but i figured since i mainly just need a check id stick it in a different thread.
I am pretty sure that a and e are correct, unsure of b and d and I need some help with c... thanks

Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution

 

Attachments

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It might help understanding to think about these in terms of http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/electric/gaulaw.html" .

B is wrong. D is probably better drawn in 3D if you can. For C, think about the gravitational field right at the surface of the Earth - this is a good approximation.
 
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sorry but could you give me a bit more of a hand - I've never heard of Gauss' law (excluding the million things in maths he did) D i don't think i can draw in 3d?, b i have no idea what else to do and c i will look at the gravitational field right at the surface of the Earth now
 
What will B look like from a huge distance away? (Think about stars in the sky! :smile:)

D is misleading in 2D. If the marking is really picky it might even be wrong - remember how to draw field lines into and out of a page? to draw in 3D just draw a coke can, then rub out the ends or something!
 
been a year since i did this in high school but i think that x means out of page and dots mean in??
 
is this what you meant for d? (really dodgy)
 

Attachments

  • d.png
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Its long, so you can ignore the effects at the ends presumably.

Describe what it should look like. Again, you can picture it from far away.
 
I really can't picture it ay. so for d if I cut off the ends will it be right then?
 

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