- #1
SherlockHolmie
- 14
- 1
Moved from a technical forum.
Summary: Potential at origin of an infinite set of point charges with charge (4^n)q and distance (3^n)a along x-axis where n starts at 1.
From V=q/r, we find Vtotal=sum from 1 to infinity of (4/3)^n(q/a), which diverges. There cannot be infinite potential because there is a finite electric field at the point.
The only way I could think of solving this is by adding together all of the 1/v, getting the sum from 1 to infinity of (3/4)^n(a/q), but I'm not sure if 1/v is still considered linear and thus obeying the superposition principle.
The only other method I could think of to find V is to find the general electric field, but this will be very complicated as every point charge's electric field will have different values and directions.
From V=q/r, we find Vtotal=sum from 1 to infinity of (4/3)^n(q/a), which diverges. There cannot be infinite potential because there is a finite electric field at the point.
The only way I could think of solving this is by adding together all of the 1/v, getting the sum from 1 to infinity of (3/4)^n(a/q), but I'm not sure if 1/v is still considered linear and thus obeying the superposition principle.
The only other method I could think of to find V is to find the general electric field, but this will be very complicated as every point charge's electric field will have different values and directions.