I'm trying to find electric potential.

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on calculating the electric potential at a corner of a rectangle where three corners have 2.0 nC charges. The key equations referenced are U=(kQq)/r for electric potential energy and V=(kq)/r for electric potential. The conclusion is that while there is no electric potential energy at the fourth corner due to the absence of a charge, the voltage can still be calculated by summing the contributions from the charges at the other corners. The correct approach involves calculating the potential from each charge and summing them to find the total voltage at that point.

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+Jace090+
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Homework Statement


There is a 4 cm by 3 cm rectangle with 2.0 nC charges at three corners. I'm trying to find the electric potential of the last corner in V.

Homework Equations


U=(kQq)/r I think
V=(kq)/r I think

The Attempt at a Solution


I found the U's between the know corners but i don't know where to go from there.
 
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Hello Jace,
You add them up :) !
 
jfk.Figure.21.P16.jpg

In this situation? I don't know if I adequately described it.
 
I found the U's of the sides with dimensions.
 
Aww, sorry for the mistake, There is no electric potential in the 4th corner, because there is no charge there, However you can calculate the voltage there (V) .
 
oh... thank you.
 
Apparently there is because I typed in 0 and the program said I was wrong.
 
It wants the V for that point, so where would I go from having the U's of those adjacent to it?
 
Then, by electric potential he mean V (voltage), no charge means no electric potential energy (by intuition and the formula insists on that), however, calculate the voltage out there :)
 
Last edited:
  • #10
How would i go from U to V? What U would I use?
 
  • #11
You can't go from U to V, because there'there's no charge out there, but one thing you can do is use V = kQ/R
[Edit: you can't because you'll be dividing by zero, moreover U = 0]
 
  • #12
What Q and what R?Would i use the average?
 
  • #13
R is the distance to the 4th coner, Q is the charge at each corner.
Calculate the potential due to each charge and sum them up !
 

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