Charges set up in a tetrahedron

4 positive charges of magnitude Q Q are kept on the corners of a regular tetrahedron, and a charge of magnitude q o q_o is kept inside the tetrahedron such that system is in equilibrium. If the ratio Q 2 q o 2 \frac{Q^2}{q_o ^2} can be expressed as a b \frac{a}{b} then find the value of a + b a+b .

Image Credit: Wikimedia Benjah-bmm27


The answer is 59.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Nathanael Case
May 28, 2015

Let me define the side-length of the tetrahedron to be L. Also, I will be using a system of units where the constant in coloumb's law is equal to 1 (because the units cancel out in the expression we are trying to find).

Consider the net force on one of the vertex-charges in the J ^ \hat J direction as shown in this picture ( J ^ \hat J points in the plane of one of the faces of the tetrahedron).

The net force from the other two vertex-charges in the same plane as J ^ \hat J will be 2 Q 2 L 2 sin ( π / 3 ) = 3 Q 2 L 2 2\frac{Q^2}{L^2}\sin(\pi/3)=\sqrt{3}\frac{Q^2}{L^2} and this net force is in the J ^ \hat J direction.

The component of the force from the remaining vertex-charge in the J ^ \hat J direction will be Q 2 L 2 x L \frac{Q^2}{L^2}\frac{x}{L} where x is the distance from the vertex to the center of an equilateral triangle. It can be shown that x = L / 2 cos ( π / 6 ) = L 3 x=\frac{L/2}{\cos(\pi/6)}=\frac{L}{\sqrt{3}} therefore the net force in the J ^ \hat J direction on one vertex-charge from the other 3 vertex-charges is:

3 Q 2 L 2 + 1 3 Q 2 L 2 = 4 3 Q 2 L 2 \sqrt{3}\frac{Q^2}{L^2}+\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\frac{Q^2}{L^2}=\frac{4}{\sqrt{3}}\frac{Q^2}{L^2}

Since the charges are in equilibrium, the net force from the central-charge q 0 q_0 in the J ^ \hat J direction F q 0 Q J ^ \vec F_{q_0\rightarrow Q}\cdot \hat J must equal the (negative of the) above expression.

It is clear that F q 0 Q J ^ = q 0 Q 2 ( x ) \vec F_{q_0\rightarrow Q}\cdot \hat J=\frac{-q_0Q}{\ell ^2}(\frac{x}{\ell}) where \ell equals the distance from a vertex to the center of the tetrahedron (and x x is the same as before).

To find \ell I first found the height of the tetrahedron y = L 2 x 2 = 2 3 L y=\sqrt{L^2-x^2}=\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}L . I then noted that 2 = ( y ) 2 + x 2 \ell^2=(y-\ell)^2+x^2 therefore = 8 3 L \ell=\sqrt{\frac{8}{3}}L and so F q 0 Q J ^ = 16 2 Q q 0 9 L 2 \vec F_{q_0\rightarrow Q}\cdot \hat J=\frac{-16\sqrt{2}Qq_0}{9L^2}

(Some of what I've said may not make sense until you think about it visually.)

Thus our equilibrium constraint is 16 2 Q q 0 9 L 2 = 4 Q 2 3 L 2 Q 2 q 0 2 = 32 27 \frac{-16\sqrt{2}Qq_0}{9L^2}=\frac{4Q^2}{\sqrt{3}L^2}\Rightarrow \frac{Q^2}{q_0^2}=\frac{32}{27}

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...