Suggested languages for you:

Americas

Europe

102P

Expert-verified
Found in: Page 716

### Fundamentals Of Physics

Book edition 10th Edition
Author(s) David Halliday
Pages 1328 pages
ISBN 9781118230718

# A charge of ${\mathbf{1}}{\mathbf{.}}{\mathbf{50}}{\mathbf{×}}{{\mathbf{10}}}^{\mathbf{-}\mathbf{8}}{\mathbf{}}{\mathbf{C}}$ lies on an isolated metal sphere of radius 16.0 cm. With ${\mathbf{V}}{\mathbf{=}}{\mathbf{0}}$ at infinity, what is the electric potential at points on the sphere’s surface?

The electric potential at points on the sphere’s surface is $\mathrm{V}=844\mathrm{V}$.

See the step by step solution

## Step 1: Given data:

For the isolated metal sphere:

The radius, $\mathrm{R}=16.0\mathrm{cm}$

The value of the charge $\mathrm{q}=1.50×{10}^{-8}\mathrm{C}$

At infinity, $\mathrm{V}=0$

## Step 2: Determining the concept:

Use the equation of the electric potential at points on the sphere’s surface.

The electric potential is defined as the amount of work energy needed to move a unit of electric charge from a reference point to the specific point in an electric field.

Formula:

The electric potential is define by,

$\begin{array}{rcl}\mathrm{V}& =& \frac{1}{4{\mathrm{\pi \epsilon }}_{0}}\frac{\mathrm{q}}{\mathrm{R}}\\ & =& \mathrm{k}\frac{\mathrm{q}}{\mathrm{R}}\end{array}$

Here, V is electric potential, R is distance between the point charges, q is charge, ${\mathrm{\epsilon }}_{0}$ is the permittivity of free space, and k is the Coulomb’s constant having a value $9×{10}^{9}\mathrm{N}.{\mathrm{m}}^{2}/{\mathrm{C}}^{2}$.

## Step 3: Determining the electric potential on the sphere’s surface:

The electric potential on the sphere is,

$\begin{array}{rcl}\mathrm{V}& =& \frac{1}{4{\mathrm{\pi \epsilon }}_{0}}\frac{\mathrm{q}}{\mathrm{R}}\\ & =& \mathrm{k}\frac{\mathrm{q}}{\mathrm{R}}\end{array}$

Substitute known values in the above equation.

$\begin{array}{rcl}\mathrm{V}& =& 9.0×{10}^{9}×\frac{1.5×{10}^{-8}}{0.16}\\ & =& 843.7\mathrm{volts}\\ & \approx & 844\mathrm{volts}\end{array}$

Hence, the electric potential at points on the sphere’s surface is 844 V.