What is the electric field at a point outside a uniformly charged sphere of radius R and total charge Q?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the electric field at a point outside a uniformly charged sphere of radius R and total charge Q?
0
Q/(4πε₀R²)
Q/(4πε₀R)
Q/(2πε₀R²)
For a point outside a uniformly charged sphere, the electric field behaves as if all the charge were concentrated at the center, so E = Q/(4πε₀R²).
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the electric field at a point outside a uniformly charged sphere of radius R and total charge Q?
Solution: For a point outside a uniformly charged sphere, the electric field behaves as if all the charge were concentrated at the center, so E = Q/(4πε₀R²).
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand that we have a uniformly charged sphere with a radius R and total charge Q.
Step 2: Identify the point where we want to find the electric field. This point is outside the sphere.
Step 3: Recall that for points outside a uniformly charged sphere, the electric field behaves like the field from a point charge located at the center of the sphere.
Step 4: Use the formula for the electric field due to a point charge, which is E = Q/(4πε₀r²), where r is the distance from the center to the point where we measure the field.
Step 5: Since we are outside the sphere, we can replace r with R (the radius of the sphere) in the formula, but we need to ensure that R is the distance from the center to the point of interest.
Step 6: Conclude that the electric field at a point outside the uniformly charged sphere is given by E = Q/(4πε₀R²).
