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§outh§tar
is feeling caustic (4,827 posts)
Old 01-16-07, 02:59 AM
 #1
Reply With Quote   §outh§tar is offline
If 13 stationary source charges are placed at the vertices of a 13-sided polygon (a triskaidecagon), what is the total electric field provided by them at the geometric center of the triskaidecagon?

I have a numeric/symbolic answer but I'd like to see someone solve it to see if our results are the same, especially since explaining my way would involve appeals to geometric ideas I can't convey in ascii.
Pete's Avatar Pete
thinking... (6,804 posts)
Old 01-16-07, 04:19 AM
 #2
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Are the charges identical, or arbitrary?
Is the polygon a regular polygon?
CANGAS
Registered Senior User (1,614 posts)
Old 01-16-07, 04:53 AM
 #3
Reply With Quote   CANGAS is offline
Originally Posted by Pete
Are the charges identical, or arbitrary?
Is the polygon a regular polygon?
I understand the thread.

Pete: in order, your questions answered:
Yes
Yes

Pete; your solution?
Pete's Avatar Pete
thinking... (6,804 posts)
Old 01-16-07, 10:00 AM
 #4
Reply With Quote   Pete is offline
Thanks CANGAS.
It is indeed natural to assume that the answers are as you suggest, but since the question is posed by SouthStar I'd rather he clarified it.
§outh§tar
is feeling caustic (4,827 posts)
Old 01-16-07, 02:05 PM
 #5
Reply With Quote   §outh§tar is offline
Cangas is right. Yes to both. I'd like also to see if anyone has the same ideas I do on generalizing to an n-gon (n>2).
Pete's Avatar Pete
thinking... (6,804 posts)
Old 01-16-07, 02:56 PM
 #6
Reply With Quote   Pete is offline
By symmetry, the field at the center must be zero.

Did you mean the total electrostatic potential?
§outh§tar
is feeling caustic (4,827 posts)
Old 01-17-07, 03:43 AM
 #7
Reply With Quote   §outh§tar is offline
Ah yep. You're right. I had an analytic way of doing it though and Mathematica came up with ~3^-15, which is a poor excuse for 0.

I'm having trouble with this one though. You have a spherical shell of charge, radius a and surface density sigma from which a SMALL circular piece of radius b << a is removed. What is the direction and magnitude of the field at the center of the hole in the shell (ignoring the removed circular piece).

I got a field of 2*pi*sigma. I'd like to see if anyone can replicate.
Pete's Avatar Pete
thinking... (6,804 posts)
Old 01-17-07, 06:18 AM
 #8
Reply With Quote   Pete is offline
Too much work for me, I think.
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