Charges and Fields Lab

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Ivy Tech Community College, Indianapolis *

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102

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Physics

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Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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Charges and Fields https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/charges-and-fields 1. Play with the simulation (Charges and Fields) and get oriented with all of the different options. This should help you understand the lab better. Activity 1 2. From the box at the bottom of the screen, drag a red +1 nC charge into the middle of the screen. 3. If not already selected: Select ‘Electric Field’. How does the brightness of the arrow relate to the strength of the field? What happens when you check/uncheck ‘Direction only’? Which way do the arrows point for a positive charge? The brightest arrows are the ones closest to the red +1 nC charge. The arrows that are farther away start to dim and the ones most outside of the screen are the least bright. When I check ‘direction only’, all of the arrows are the same brightness. When I uncheck ‘direction only’, what I first describe is shown. The arrows are pointing out, away from the positive charge. 4. Drag the red +1 nC charge back into the box at the bottom, and then drag a blue –1 nC charge onto the screen. Which way do the electric field arrows point for a negative charge? The electric field arrows point towards the blue -1 nC charge. 5. Click on the yellow Sensor at the bottom and drag it across the electric field. What information do the Sensors show? The information the sensor shows is a red arrow that points towards the blue -1 nC charge. The farther I drag the sensor, the red arrow on it decreases in size to where no arrow is shown, but the pointer I close it to the blue -1 nC charge, the arrow grows in size and the length is longer than the screen. 6. What happens to the electric field as you move further from the charges? When I move the blue charge, the arrows follow the charge. When I move the red charge, the arrows repel away from it. 7. Take the Voltage meter (labeled ‘0.0 V’). What information does the voltmeter give? What information is given when you click on the pencil (you should have a green circle)? What does the green circle represent? (If you’re not sure, move on and come back to this later.) The voltmeter shows the electric potential of the charge. When I click on the pencil, it shows the measurement of voltage in the Equipotential. The green circle represents the voltage range of the positive and negative charges. Activity 2 (If you want to reset the screen, click on the orange circle arrow in the bottom right corner. Do this before each activity) 8. How can you make a charge of +2q? How can you make a charge of -3q?

I can create the charge of +2q by two units of the red +1 nC and to make a charge of -3q, I would add three units of the blue -1 nC. 9. Determine what charges (magnitude and positive/negative) would give you the electric field lines shown below? (You may need to try different combinations to determine the magnitudes of each charge.) The left charge is a red +1 nC because the arrows are repelling away from it. The right charge is the blue -1 nC because the arrows are attracted to it. 10. When you have two opposite but equal magnitude charges along a horizontal line (similar to the picture above), where is the electric field the greatest? Is there ever a point where the field will be zero? The electric field is the greatest between the two charges. The electrical field creates different directions of the arrows because of the opposite charges on the horizontal line. Yes, I think there is a point where the field can be zero because of the signs being different. By moving the opposite charges away from each other but still along the horizontal line, there will be a point where the field will be zero. 11. When you have two of the same charges along a horizontal line, where is the electric field the greatest? Is there ever a point where the field will be zero? When the same charges are along the horizontal line, the electrical field is greatest near the charges instead of between them. I do not think it will ever reach the point of zero because of the signs being the same. Even if the charges are moved farther away from each other, there is no point of the field being zero. 12. Determine what charge/charges (magnitude and positive/negative) would give each the lines of equipotential shown below? (For each situation, turn the ‘Electric Field’ on and off to see how the electric field lines compare to the equipotential lines)

a b) c) d)

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13. When you have two opposite but equal magnitude charges along a horizontal line (similar to the picture above), where is the potential the greatest? Is there ever a point where the potential will be zero? The greatest potential is where the positive charge is and the point where the potential will be zero is in between the opposite charges. 14. When you have two of the same charges along a horizontal line, where is the potential the greatest? Is there ever a point where the potential will be zero? This scenario is the complete opposite from when the charges are opposite from one another. The greatest potential is between the same charges and there is no point where the potential will be zero. Activity 3 15. Make a long vertical line of positive charges by placing them very close together, similar to what’s shown to the right. How does the electric field change as you move around the line of charges? As I added more positive charges on top of each other, the arrows in the electric field kept repelling away from the charges. The arrows closest to the charges are pointing straight away from them while the arrows farther away are repelling in different directions straight up, straight to the sides, and straight down.

16. Make a long vertical line of negative charges 2 meter from the positive charges similar to what’s shown below. This is your parallel-plate capacitor. How does the strength of the electric field change between the two lines? How does the direction of the electric field change between the two plates? The electric field repels away from the positive charges while it attracts to the negative charges. The strength of the electric field between the two lines remains constant and the direction is going from positive to negative. 17. Place sensors at 3 different locations between the lines to get readings of the electric field, each at different distances from the lines. 18. Use the voltmeter to draw lines of equal potential at the locations of the three sensors by clicking on the pencil button on the voltmeter. When you have the voltmeter at each distance, click this button. Doing so will record the potential V and draw a green line on the screen. Include a screenshot of your capacitor with 3 sensors and 3 green lines/circles.

19. Fill in the table below for each of the locations. (In order to see the potentials, you may need to move the sensors.) Location Distance from positive plate (m) Electric field E (V/m) Potential V (V) 1 0.18 269 49.6 2 1.82 469 85.5 3 -0.02 318 -6.5 Activity 4

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20. Place six +1 nC charges on top of each other somewhere on the left side of the screen. (It can go anywhere, but there needs to be enough space to measure 8 m away.) 21. From the box at the bottom, drag a Sensor and place it 1 m to the right of your charge. This sensor measures the E field at the location of its placing. In the table at right, record the E field magnitude at a distance r of 1 m. Ignore the degrees. 22. Drag the Sensor to the other distances shown in the table, then record the E field measurements. 23. Drag your Sensor back and replace it in the box at the bottom of the screen. 24. Using the voltmeter, record the potential V by drawing a green line on the screen at each distance. Fill in the table at the far right. Include a screenshot with all of the green circles. 25. Write the equation for the electric field at any distance r from a point charge q : K=q/r 2 r (m) E (V/m) 1 45.1 2 12.6 3 5.96 4 3.35 5 2.14 6 1.48 7 1.10 8 0.84 r (m) V (V) 1 49.9 2 26.4 3 17.8 4 13.4 5 10.7 6 9.0 7 7.7 8 6.8

Charges and Fields Lab

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