What is the potential of the big drop formed by 1000 charged rain drops?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on calculating the potential of a large drop formed by 1000 charged raindrops, each with charge "q" and potential "v." Participants explore the formula for electric potential, initially referencing V=kq/r for individual drops and transitioning to kQ/R for the larger drop. The key point is that while the radius of the big drop is not simply 1000 times that of a small drop, its volume is significantly larger. Understanding the relationship between the volume of the small drops and the resulting big drop is crucial for determining the radius. This geometric relationship ultimately aids in calculating the potential of the big drop.
devanlevin
1000 rain drops, each with a charge of "q" and a potential of "v" fall and make one big drop, losing no charge in the process, what is the potential of the big drop
 
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Hi devanlevin,

devanlevin said:
1000 rain drops, each with a charge of "q" and a potential of "v" fall and make one big drop, losing no charge in the process, what is the potential of the big drop

What is the formula for the potential in this case?
 
i don't know? KQ/r? how do i work this out?
 
devanlevin said:
i don't know? KQ/r? how do i work this out?

That's right; V=kq/r for each of the small drops. Now relate that to kQ/R for the big drop. What do you get?
 
i don't know, how do i know what R is??
 
devanlevin said:
i don't know, how do i know what R is??

What geometric quantity is the same in the group of 1000 drops as in the one big drop? The radius of the big drop is not 1000 times the radius of a small drop; but what is 1000 times larger in the big drop as in one of the small drops?
 
thanks, that should help,,, volume right
 
devanlevin said:
thanks, that should help,,, volume right

That's right; and with that you can find how much larger the radius of the big drop is compared to the original ones.
 

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