COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING

ARC414 Principles of Engineering Science 2

Electric Potential

1. There are three charges, 4.0 µC, 3.5 µC and -6.4 µC, each at the vertex of an equilateral
triangle of side length 0.020m. What is the potential energy of the system? -1.5 x 101 J
2. Two point charges of +3.5 μC and +8.3 μC are separated by a distance of 4.0 m. What is the
electric potential midway between the charges? 5.3 x 104 V
3. A proton passes through a potential difference of 350 V. Find its kinetic energy and velocity
(e = 1.60 x 10-19 C, mp = 1.67 x 10-27 kg). KE = 5.6 x 10-17 J; v = 2.6 x 105 m/s
4. How much work is done in moving a +2.6 µC charged particle from a point with a potential of
100.0 V to a point with a potential of 20.0 V? -2.1 x 10-4 J
5. An Electric Field does 40.0 mJ of work to move a +6.8 μC charge from one point to another.
What is the potential difference between these two points? 5.9 x 103 V

6. A gold nucleus has a radius of 3 × 10−15 m and carries a charge of 79e?

(a) What is the electric field strength at its surface?
(b) What is the potential at its surface?
(c) How much energy in electron volts would be required to bring a proton from a large
distance up to the surface of the gold nucleus?
(d) What would the initial velocity of the proton need to be in order to come this close to the
gold nucleus? (Assume the gold nucleus does not recoil.)

7. A potential difference of 10,000 V exists between two parallel plates which are separated by
10 cm. An electron is released from the negative plate at the same instant a proton is released
from the positive plate.
(a) What is the kinetic energy of each particle as they reach the opposite sides? State your
answer in units of Joules and electron volts.
(b) With what velocity does each of the particles hit the opposite plates?
(c) What is the electric field strength between the plates?
(d) What is the acceleration of each particle?
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