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

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around the potential of a large drop formed by the merging of 1000 charged rain drops, each with a specified charge and potential. Participants are exploring the relationship between the individual drops and the resulting larger drop in terms of electric potential.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning, Problem interpretation

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants are questioning how to relate the potential of the individual drops to that of the larger drop. There are discussions about the formula for electric potential and how to determine the radius of the big drop.

Discussion Status

Some participants have provided guidance on relating the potentials of the small and large drops, while others are exploring the geometric relationships involved. There is an ongoing inquiry into the necessary parameters, such as the radius of the big drop, with some productive direction emerging regarding volume comparisons.

Contextual Notes

Participants are grappling with the implications of charge conservation and geometric scaling in the context of the problem, particularly regarding the radius and volume of the drops.

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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