Electricity and Magnetism Assignment 4 last date 16/06/2011 Conceptual problems 1.

How does the stored energy change if the potential difference across a capacitor is tripled? 2. If a dielectric-filled capacitor is cooled down, what happens to its capacitance?3 3. A constant electric field generally produces a constant drift velocity in a conduction wire. How is this consistent with Newtons second law, i.e. that force results in acceleration, not velocity? Section A Q1 The figure shows an open switch, a battery of potential difference V, a currentmeasuring meter A, and three identical uncharged capacitors of capacitance C. When the switch is closed and the circuit reaches equilibrium, what are (a) the potential difference across each capacitor and (b) the charge on the left-hand plate of each capacitor? Give your answers in terms of C and V.

Discuss what would happen to answers (a) and (b) if the middle capacitor was now 2C.

Q2 One capacitor is charged until its stored energy is 4.0 J. A second uncharged capacitor is then connected to it in parallel. (a) If the charge distributes equally, what is now the total energy stored in the electric fields? (b) Where did the excess energy go?

Section B Q1 A 100-pF capacitor and a 400-pF capacitor are charged to 1 kV and 2 kV respectively. They are then disconnected from the voltage source and are connected together, positive plate to positive plate, and negative plate to negative plate. (a) Find the resulting potential difference across each capacitor. (b) Find the energy lost when the connections are made.

Q2. A uniformly charged thin ring has radius 15.0 cm and has total charge +24.0 nC. An electron is placed on the rings axis a distance 30.0 cm from the centre of the ring and is constrained to stay on the axis of the ring. The electron is then released from rest. (a) Derive an expression for the potential along the axis. Draw a sketch of this function, and a sketch of the potential energy of the electron. (b) Describe the subsequent motion of the electron by sketching its position along the axis as a function of time. (c) Find the speed of the electron when it reaches the centre of the ring.

Section C Show that the electric field for an infinitely long, uniformly charged cylindrical shell of radius R carrying a surface charge density is given by Er = 0 for r < R

E =
r

R for r > R = r 2 r
0 0

where = 2R is the charge per unit length on the shell.