Triangular Electric Field

Find the electric field due to a equilateral triangle plate of side \ell and charge density σ \sigma at a distance 1 4 2 3 \tfrac14\ell\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}} above centroid up to 4 decimal places. σ = 1 0 9 \sigma = 10^{-9} C m 2 {}^{-2} , ϵ 0 = 8.85 × 10 12 {\epsilon}_{0}=8.85 \times {10}^{-12} F m 1 {}^{-1} .


The answer is 28.2485.

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2 solutions

Tejas S
May 11, 2019

This is just 1/4 of flux of a tetrahedron (due to guess law). So sigma/4€o

Mark Hennings
Aug 25, 2018

The electric field at a point P P with position vector r \mathbf{r} is E = σ 4 π ε 0 T r x r x 3 d A ( x ) \mathbf{E} \; = \; \frac{\sigma}{4\pi \varepsilon_0} \iint_T \frac{\mathbf{r} - \mathbf{x}}{|\mathbf{r} - \mathbf{x}|^3}\,dA(\mathbf{x}) where the integral is over the triangle T T . By symmetry, the electrc field at the particular point P P will be normal to the triangle, and so we calculate E = σ 4 π ε 0 C P T d A ( x ) r x 3 k = σ 4 π ε 0 T cos θ d A ( x ) r x 2 k = σ 4 π ε 0 T d Ω ( x ) k = σ Ω 4 π ε 0 k \mathbf{E} \; = \; \frac{\sigma}{4\pi\varepsilon_0} CP \iint_T \frac{dA(\mathbf{x})}{|\mathbf{r}-\mathbf{x}|^3}\mathbf{k} \; = \; \frac{\sigma}{4\pi\varepsilon_0}\iint_T \frac{\cos\theta\,dA(\mathbf{x})}{|\mathbf{r}-\mathbf{x}|^2}\mathbf{k} \;= \; \frac{\sigma}{4\pi\varepsilon_0}\iint_T d\Omega(\mathbf{x})\mathbf{k} \; = \; \frac{\sigma\Omega}{4\pi\varepsilon_0}\mathbf{k} where C C is the centroid of the triangle, Ω \Omega is the solid angle subtended by the triangle T T at the point P P and k \mathbf{k} is a unit vector in the direction of P C PC . Now P P is at the centroid of a regular tetrahedron of which T T is one of the faces. Thus, by symmetry, Ω = 1 4 × 4 π = π \Omega = \tfrac14 \times 4\pi = \pi , and hence E = σ 4 ε 0 k \mathbf{E} \; = \; \frac{\sigma}{4\varepsilon_0}\mathbf{k} and, with the given values of σ \sigma and ε 0 \varepsilon_0 , we have E = 28.2486 |\mathbf{E}| = \boxed{28.2486} .

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