What is the effect of increasing the permittivity of the medium on the electric field due to a point charge?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the effect of increasing the permittivity of the medium on the electric field due to a point charge?
Electric field increases
Electric field decreases
Electric field remains the same
Electric field becomes zero
Increasing the permittivity of the medium decreases the electric field due to a point charge, as E = Q/(4πε₀r²).
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the effect of increasing the permittivity of the medium on the electric field due to a point charge?
Solution: Increasing the permittivity of the medium decreases the electric field due to a point charge, as E = Q/(4πε₀r²).
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what permittivity is. Permittivity is a measure of how much electric field is reduced in a medium compared to a vacuum.
Step 2: Know the formula for the electric field (E) due to a point charge (Q). The formula is E = Q/(4πε₀r²), where ε₀ is the permittivity of free space.
Step 3: Identify what happens when the permittivity (ε) of the medium increases. A higher permittivity means the medium can reduce the electric field more.
Step 4: Realize that if ε increases, the value of E (electric field) decreases because E is inversely proportional to ε.
Step 5: Conclude that increasing the permittivity of the medium decreases the electric field produced by the point charge.
