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Lab 2

Experiment: Equipotential and electric field lines

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38 views3 pages

Lab 2

Experiment: Equipotential and electric field lines

Uploaded by

nas4243
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Experiment: Equipotential and electric field lines

Nastya Rudenko

9/20/23

Lab Objective:
The objective of this laboratory work is to study the distribution of electric potential and
electric field produced by electric charges.

Physical Principles:
Electric potential is the amount of work needed to move a unit charge from a reference
point to a specific point against an electric field. V = k*(q/r). The rate of change of electric
potential V over distance d is known as electric field E=V/d. And an electric field is revealed
when another charge q close to another charge. Electric charges can be of two signs: positive and
negative. Like charges repel each other, whereas the charges of opposite signs attract each other.
The positive electric field directed away from it and negative electric field directed toward the
charge. If we have negative and positive charge close to each other they going to attract and like
charges going to repel. To find electric field between charges you need to compare the potential
difference between two points. E=-(Va-Vb)/dab

Equipment and
 Conductive paper
 Adhesive copper dots and strips
 E-fields plexi-glass stand
 White paper (8½"x11")
 Carbon paper
 Digital multimeter
 18” banana-to-banana connectors: one red and two black
 36” red banana-to-banana connector
 Banana post tip adaptor (2mm)
 3V – 12V Variable power supply (set to 6V)

Procedure
We followed the manual to set everything up. Once the set up was complete, I used a piece of
graphing paper and replicated the shape of each conducting region and its proper location and
mark which positive and which negative. The power supply was set to 6V.
Part 1. Two-point charge configuration. Using the detector I started to locate points between the
conducting regions. Five points were located all of which had the same voltage. These points
created the first of three equipotential lines. Then a about centimeter away another five points
were located of the same voltage and at 7 different location voltage was taken between the two
charges
Part 2. We had parallel plates. And same way I collected the voltage 7 times 1 cm away each.

Data Analysis:
(See Attachment)
Part 1. E=-(V5-V6)/d56 E=-(3.6-4)/.01= 40 V/m
Part 2. E=-(V5-V6)/d56 E=-(3.6-4.4)/.012 = 66.7 V/m

Discussion and Conclusion


With part one I saw the charge distributed like around each charge like a circle and when
we had parallel plates it was only started to curve around plates at the end of then when they
ended. And that what was expected to see.
The results of electric field revealed that it was distributed equal. As we can see from the
graph the charge total was 6V. The value of an electric field should decrease as it gets farther
away from the positive charge it radiates from. In this procedure, since a positive and negative
conductor are used, the electric field values was following decreasing pattern as they approach
the negative conductor. At V7 we had 5V and close to negative conductor V1=1.2V

Questions
1. Is it possible for two different equipotential lines to cross each other? Explain why or
why not?
It’s not possible because equipotential lines change in charge as they separate so it it not possible
for two lines to cross.
2. Is it possible for two different electric field lines to cross each other? Explain why or
why not?
No, two different electric field lines cannot cross each other. Electric field lines represent the
direction and magnitude of the electric field at various points in space. The electric field is a
vector quantity, meaning it has both magnitude and direction.
3. Where do the electric field lines begin and end? If they are equally spaced at their
beginning, are they equally spaced at the end? Along the way? Why?
Electric field lines begin on positive charges and end on negative charges. The spacing of electric
field lines represents the strength of the electric field. Closer spacing indicates a stronger electric
field, while wider spacing indicates a weaker field.
4. If you wanted to push a charge along one of the electric field lines from one
conductor to the other, how does the choice of electric field line affect the amount of
work required? Explain.
he choice of electric field line does not affect the amount of work required to move a charge
from one conductor to the other. The work done to move a charge depends only on the potential
difference (voltage) between the two points and the charge itself.
5. The potential is the same everywhere along an equipotential line. Is the electric field
the same everywhere along an electric field line? Explain.
No, Electric field lines indicate the direction of the electric field at each point, but the magnitude
of the electric field can vary. Closer spacing indicating a stronger field and wider spacing
indicating a weaker field.
6. How much work has to be done to move an electric charge along an equipotential
line?
No work is required to move an electric charge along an equipotential line. This is because an
equipotential line represents a surface where all points have the same electric potential. Since the
electric potential is a scalar quantity and does not have a direction
7. Where do the equipotential lines begin and end? Explain.
Equipotential lines begin on positive charges and end on negative charges.

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