Green Pea Discharge: How Much Charge Can It Hold?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the amount of charge that can be held by a green pea before it discharges, specifically in the context of electric fields and capacitance. The problem involves understanding the breakdown of dry air and the relationship between charge, electric field, and the geometry of the pea.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the need to relate the capacitance of a spherical object to its surface area and the electric field generated by the charge. There are inquiries about starting points and relevant equations for the calculations involved.

Discussion Status

Some participants have provided insights into the necessary calculations and relevant physical laws, such as Gauss's Law. However, there is no explicit consensus on the approach to take, and further clarification is sought regarding the equations and concepts involved.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention the lack of a textbook and the need for specific equations, indicating constraints in resources that may affect the discussion.

cky_uk
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I don't have a clue on where to start this as i don't know what other figures to use.

Dry air will break down and generate a spark if the electric field exceeds 3x106N/C. How much charge could be packed onto a green pea (diameter 0.75cm) before the pea spontaneously discharges?
 
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This is a quaestion about capacitance. You need to find how the capacitance of a single object (as opposed to parallel plates) is related to its surface area.
 
any further help on this?
 
Do you have a textbook?
 
no i dont,could you possible give me the equation?
 
cky_uk said:
Dry air will break down and generate a spark if the electric field exceeds 3x106N/C. How much charge could be packed onto a green pea (diameter 0.75cm) before the pea spontaneously discharges?
One has to calculate the charge that yields an electric field of 3x106 N/C on a sphere of diameter 0.75 cm.

Then one should know the equation for the electric field at the surface of a sphere. This is an application of Gauss's Law. See - hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/electric/elesph.html (unfortunately site is down at the moment).

Also -
http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/PY106/Electricfield.html (toward bottom of page),

Worked example 4: Electric field of a uniformly charged sphere
http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/302l/lectures/node18.html
 
thank you for your help,are you any good with biology equations?
 

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