The membrane that surrounds a certain type of living cell has a surface area of 7.3 x 10-9 m² and a thickness of 1.3x 108 m. Assume that the membrane behaves like a parallel plate capacitor and has a dielectric constant of 5.5. (a) The potential on the outer surface of the membrane is +75.4 mV greater than that on the inside surface. How much charge resides on the outer surface? (b) If the charge in part (a) is due to K* ions (charge +e), how many such ions are present on the outer Curfaco?
Dielectric Constant Of Water
Water constitutes about 70% of earth. Some important distinguishing properties of water are high molar concentration, small dissociation constant and high dielectric constant.
Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance
An electrostatic force is a force caused by stationary electric charges /fields. The electrostatic force is caused by the transfer of electrons in conducting materials. Coulomb’s law determines the amount of force between two stationary, charged particles. The electric force is the force which acts between two stationary charges. It is also called Coulomb force.
Given
Area A = 7.3 × 10-9 m2
Thickness d = 1.3 × 10-8 m
Dielectric constant k = 5.5
Potential difference V = 75.4 mV
= 75.4 × 10-3 V
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