Understanding Electric Fields and Capacitance for Suspended Charged Disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter brad sue
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Image Method
AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around calculating the electric field and capacitance of a uniformly charged disk suspended above an infinite conducting plane. The user is confused about applying the method of images to determine the electric fields generated by both the charged disk and its image charge. They present the electric field equations for both the disk and its image but express uncertainty about the direction of the electric fields. A suggestion is made to reverse the direction of the unit vector for the image charge's electric field due to its opposite polarity. The user plans to proceed with the calculations after clarifying this point.
brad sue
Messages
270
Reaction score
0
HI I don't understand the method of image.
I have this problem:

A uniform charged disk is suspended ( at a distance h) above an infinite conducting plane ( disk is parallel to the plane). The disk carries a charge Q and has a diameter d. Assume d>>h.
1- Calculate the electric field vector near the center and below the disk.
2- Calculate the capacitance of the system using the formula C=Q/V.
3- Calculate the capacitance of the system using the energy formulas.


I attach a picture.
I get lost at some point

the electric fiel for a disk is:
E=Qy/(2*pi*epsilon)*(1/y-1/(sqrt(y^2+R^2)) y (unit vector)

to answer the question 1-:
electric field from charge Q:
EQ=Q(h-y)/(2*pi*epsilon)*(1/(h-y)-1/(sqrt((h-y)^2+R^2)) (-y) (unit vector)

electric field from charge -Q ( the image):
E-Q=-Q(h+y)/(2*pi*epsilon)*(1/(h+y)-1/(sqrt((h+y)^2+R^2)) (-y) (unit vector)

Here is my first problem: the direction of the two electric fields EQ and E-Q.
I am not sure about the electric field of the expressions.

(I suspect I get some mistakes because I tried a similar problem but with a more simple expression for the 2 fields and when I add them, I get zero)

I would really have some help with this problem.

please can someone help me?
Thank you
 

Attachments

Physics news on Phys.org
Reverse the direction of the unit vector y for E_{-Q} because the polarity is opposite to E_{Q}.
 
thanks.
I will try to continue from there.
 
Thread 'Variable mass system : water sprayed into a moving container'
Starting with the mass considerations #m(t)# is mass of water #M_{c}# mass of container and #M(t)# mass of total system $$M(t) = M_{C} + m(t)$$ $$\Rightarrow \frac{dM(t)}{dt} = \frac{dm(t)}{dt}$$ $$P_i = Mv + u \, dm$$ $$P_f = (M + dm)(v + dv)$$ $$\Delta P = M \, dv + (v - u) \, dm$$ $$F = \frac{dP}{dt} = M \frac{dv}{dt} + (v - u) \frac{dm}{dt}$$ $$F = u \frac{dm}{dt} = \rho A u^2$$ from conservation of momentum , the cannon recoils with the same force which it applies. $$\quad \frac{dm}{dt}...
Back
Top