1

Chapter2: Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance

1. Is the electric field conservative? What is the meaning of this?

Ans: Yes. The electric field is conservative in nature.

It means that the work done by an electrostatic field in moving a charge from one

point to another depends only on the initial and the final points and is independent of

the path taken to go from one point to the other.

2. For any charge configuration, equipotential surface through a point is normal to the

electric field at that point.

3. Electric field is in the direction in which the potential decreases steepest.

4. The potential energy is characteristic of the present state of configuration, and not the

way the state is achieved.

5. Electron volt (eV) is a unit of energy.

6. The units based on eV are most commonly used in atomic, nuclear and particle

physics.

7. At what position of the dipole potential energy U is taken to be zero and why?

Ans: Potential energy U is taken zero when the dipole moment vector ( ⃗) is

perpendicular to the direction of the electric field ⃗ .

In this case, the work done against the external field E in bringing +q and – q are

equal and opposite and cancel out, i.e., q [V (r1 ) – V (r2 )]=0.

8. In metallic conductors, the charge carriers are electrons.

9. In electrolytic conductors, the charge carriers are both positive and negative ions.

10. In the static situation, the free charges have so distributed themselves that the electric

field is zero everywhere inside a conductor.

11. Electrostatic field at the surface of a charged conductor must be normal to the surface

at every point.
 2

12. There is no net charge at any point inside the conductor, and any excess charge must

reside at the surface.

13. The interior of a conductor can have no excess charge in the static situation.

14. Electrostatic potential is constant throughout the volume of the conductor and has the

same value (as inside) on its surface.

15. Show that the electric field at the surface of a charged conductor is given by:

⃗=

Here, is a unit vector normal to the surface in the outward direction.

Ans:

Choose a pill box (a short cylinder) as the Gaussian

surface about any point P on the surface, partly

inside and partly. It has a small area of cross

section d S and negligible height. Just inside the

surface, the electrostatic field is zero; just outside,

the field is normal to the surface with magnitude E.

The charge enclosed by the pill box is .

By Gauss’s law,

| |
=

| |
=

Vectorially,

⃗=

Here, is a unit vector normal to the surface in the outward direction.

 3

16. Even if the conductor is charged or charges are induced on a neutral conductor by an

external field, all charges reside only on the outer surface of a conductor with cavity.

17. Mention the electrostatic properties of a conductor represented by each of the

following figure:

Ans:

(i) Top left corner: No charge inside, so field is zero

(ii) Top right corner: Electric field is normal to the surface of a charge conductor

| |
and has a value =

(iii) Bottom left corner: Electrostatic potential is constant throughout the volume of

the conductor and has the same value (as inside) on its surface.

(iv) Bottom right corner: Inside the cavity of a conductor, electric field is zero.

18. What are linear isotropic dielectrics?

Ans: Substances for which induced dipole moment is in the direction of the field and

is proportional to the field strength are called linear isotropic dielectrics.

19. Whether polar or non-polar, a dielectric develops a net dipole moment in the presence

of an external field.

20. The polarised dielectric is equivalent to two charged surfaces with induced surface

charge densities, say and – .

 4

21. The total field in the dielectric is, thereby, reduced from the case when no dielectric is

present.

22. What is capacitance of a capacitor?

Ans: The capacitance C of a capacitor is defined as the ratio of the maximum charge

Q that can be stored in a capacitor to the applied voltage V across its plates. In other

words, capacitance is the largest amount of charge per volt that can be stored on the

device.

23. Capacitance is independent of Q (charge) and V (potential difference).

24. For a capacitor to store a large amount of charge without leaking, its capacitance

should be high enough so that the potential difference and hence the electric field do

not exceed the breakdown limits.

25. What is the effect of dielectric on capacitance?

Ans: Adding a dielectric will increase the capacitance.