Question Bank For May 2017 Physics
Question Bank For May 2017 Physics
Question Bank For May 2017 Physics
1. What is the force between two small charged sphere having charges of 2 10-7 C and 3
10-7 C placed 30 cm apart in air?
2. The electrostatic force on a small sphere of charge 0.4 C due to another small sphere of
charge -0.8 C in air is 0.2 N.
a. What is the distance between the two spheres?
b. What is the force on the second sphere due to the first?
3. Check that the ratio ke2/G me mp is dimensionless. Look up a table of physical constants
and determine the value of this ratio. What does the ratio signify?
4. (a) Explain the meaning of the statement electric charge of a body is quantized.
(b)Why can ignore quantisation of electric charge when dealing with macroscopic i.e.
large scale charges?
5. When a glass rod is rubbed with a silk cloth. Charges appear on both. A similar
phenomenon is observed with many other pairs of bodies. Explain how this observation is
consistent with the law of conservation of charge.
6. Four point charge qA = 2 C, qB = -5 C, qC = 2C and qD= -5 C are located at the
corners of a square ABCD of side 10 cm. what is the force on a charge of 1 C placed at
the centre of the square?
7. (a) An electrostatic field line is a continuous curve. That is , a field line cannot have
sudden breaks. Why not?
(b) Explain why two field lines never cross each other at any point.
8. Two point charges qA = 3C and qB= -3 C are located 20 cm apart in vacuum.
(a) What is the electric field at the midpoint O of the line AB joining the two charges?
(b) If the negative test charge of magnitude 1.5 10-9 C is placed at this point, what is the
force experienced by the test charge?
9. A system has two charges qA = 2.5 10-7C and qB=-2.5 10-7C located at points A:
(0,0,1.5 cm) and B: (0, 0,+15 cm), respectively. What are the total charge and electric
dipole moment of the system?
10. An electric dipole with dipole moment 410-9Cm is aligned at 30o with direction of a
uniform electric field of magnitude 5104 NC-1. Calculate the magnitude of the torque
acting on the dipole.
11. A point charge causes an electric flux of 1.0 103 Nm2/C to pass through a spherical
Gaussian surface of 10.0 cm radius centered on the charge. (a) If the radius of the
Gaussian surface were doubled, how much flux would pass through the surface? (b) What
is the value of the point charge?
12. A conducting sphere of radius 10 cm has an unknown charge. If the electric field 20 cm
from the centre of the sphere is 1.5 103 N/C and points radially inward, what is the net
charge on the sphere?
13. A uniformly charged conducting sphere of 2.4 m diameter has a surface charge density of
80.0 C/m2. (a) Find the charge on the sphere. (b) What is the total electric flux leaving
the surface of the sphere?
14. An infinite line charge produces a field of 9 104 N/C at a distance of 2 cm. Calculate
the linear charge density.
15. Two large, thin metal plates are parallel and close to each other. On their inner faces, the
plates have surface charge densities of opposite signs and of magnitude 17.0 10 22
C/m2. What is E: (a) in the outer region of the first plate, (b) in the outer region of the
second plate, and (c) between the plates?
16. Two charges 3 108 C and 2 108 C are located 15 cm apart. At what point on the
line joining the two charges is the electric potential zero? Take the potential at infinity to
be zero.
17. Find out the potential energy of a single charge?
18. Find out the potential energy of a system of two charges in an external field.
19. A molecule of a substance has a permanent electric dipole moment of magnitude 1029 C
m. A mole of this substance is polarized (at low temperature) by applying a strong
electrostatic field of magnitude 106 V m1. The direction of the field is suddenly changed
by an angle of 60. Estimate the heat released by the substance in aligning its dipoles
along the new direction of the field. For simplicity, assume 100% polarization of the
sample.
20. What do you mean by electrostatic conductor? Explain.
21. Explain
a. A comb run through ones dry hair attracts small bits of paper. Why?
b. What happens if the hair is wet or if it is a rainy day? (Remember, a paper does not
conduct electricity.)
c. Ordinary rubber is an insulator. But special rubber tyres of aircraft are made slightly
conducting. Why is this necessary?
d. Vehicles carrying inflammable materials usually have metallic ropes touching the
ground during motion.
e. Why? A bird perches on a bare high power line, and nothing happens to the bird. A
man standing on the ground touches the same line and gets a fatal shock. Why?
22. Describe briefly dielectric and polarization.
23. What is parallel plate capacitor? Explain. What is the effect on capacity of parallel plate
capacitor when dielectrics are inserted in between the plates.
24. A slab of material of dielectric constant K has the same area as the plates of a parallel-
plate capacitor but has a thickness (3/4) d, where d is the separation of the plates. How is
the capacitance changed when the slab is inserted between the plates?
25. Evaluate the energy stored in the capacitor.
26. a) A 900 pF capacitor is charged by 100 V battery. How much electrostatic energy is
stored by the capacitor? (b) The capacitor is disconnected from the battery and connected
to another 900 pF capacitor. What is the electrostatic energy stored by the system?
27. Two charges 5 108 C and 3 108 C are located 16 cm apart. At what point(s) on the
line joining the two charges is the electric potential zero? Take the potential at infinity to
be zero.
28. A regular hexagon of side 10 cm has a charge 5 C at each of its vertices. Calculate the
potential at the centre of the hexagon.
29. Two charges 2 C and 2 C are placed at points A and B 6 cm apart.
(a) Identify an equipotential surface of the system.
(b) What is the direction of the electric field at every point on this surface?
30. A spherical conductor of radius 12 cm has a charge of 1.6 107C distributed uniformly
on its surface. What is the electric field (a) inside the sphere (b) just outside the sphere (c)
at a point 18 cm from the centre of the sphere?
31. A parallel plate capacitor with air between the plates has a capacitance of 8 pF (1pF = 10
12
F). What will be the capacitance if the distance between the plates is reduced by half,
and the space between them is filled with a substance of dielectric constant 6?
32. Three capacitors each of capacitance 9 pF are connected in series. (a) What is the total
capacitance of the combination? (b) What is the potential difference across each capacitor
if the combination is connected to a 120 V supply?
33. Three capacitors of capacitances 2 pF, 3 pF and 4 pF are connected in parallel. (a) What
is the total capacitance of the combination? (b) Determine the charge on each capacitor if
the combination is connected to a 100 V supply.
34. In a parallel plate capacitor with air between the plates, each plate has an area of 6 10 3
m2 and the distance between the plates is 3 mm. Calculate the capacitance of the
capacitor. If this capacitor is connected to a 100 V supply, what is the charge on each
plate of the capacitor?
35. Explain what would happen if in the capacitor given in above Exercise a 3 mm thick
mica sheet (of dielectric constant = 6) were inserted between the plates, (a) while the
voltage supply remained connected. (b) After the supply was disconnected.
36. A 12pF capacitor is connected to a 50V battery. How much electrostatic energy is stored
in the capacitor?
37. A 600pF capacitor is charged by a 200V supply. It is then disconnected from the supply
and is connected to another uncharged 600 pF capacitor. How much electrostatic energy
is lost in the process?
38. The plates of a parallel plate capacitor have an area of 90 cm2 each and are separated by
2.5 mm. The capacitor is charged by connecting it to a 400 V supply.(a) How much
electrostatic energy is stored by the capacitor? (b) View this energy as stored in the
electrostatic field between the plates, and obtain the energy per unit volume u. Hence
arrive at a relation between u and the magnitude of electric field E between the plates.
39. A 4 F capacitor is charged by a 200 V supply. It is then disconnected from the supply,
and is connected to another uncharged 2 F capacitor. How much electrostatic energy of
the first capacitor is lost in the form of heat and electromagnetic radiation?
40. Show that the force on each plate of a parallel plate capacitor has a magnitude equal to
() QE, where Q is the charge on the capacitor, and E is the magnitude of electric field
between the plates. Explain the origin of the factor .
41. A spherical capacitor has an inner sphere of radius 12 cm and an outer sphere of radius
13 cm. The outer sphere is earthed and the inner sphere is given a charge of 2.5 C. The
space between the concentric spheres is filled with a liquid of dielectric constant 32.
(a) Determine the capacitance of the capacitor.
(b) What is the potential of the inner sphere?
(c) Compare the capacitance of this capacitor with that of an isolated sphere of radius 12
cm. Explain why the latter is much smaller.
42. Answer carefully:
i. Two large conducting spheres carrying charges Q1 and Q2 are brought
close to each other. Is the magnitude of electrostatic force between them
exactly given by Q1Q2/40r2, where r is the distance between their
centers?
ii. If Coulombs law involved 1/r3 dependence (instead of 1/r2), would
Gausss law be still true?
iii. A small test charge is released at rest at a point in an electrostatic field
configuration. Will it travel along the field line passing through that
point?
iv. What is the work done by the field of a nucleus in a complete circular
orbit of the electron? What if the orbit is elliptical?
v. We know that electric field is discontinuous across the surface of a
charged conductor. Is electric potential also discontinuous there?
vi. What meaning would you give to the capacitance of a single conductor?
vii. Guess a possible reason why water has a much greater dielectric constant
(= 80) than say, mica (= 6).
43. A cylindrical capacitor has two co-axial cylinders of length 15 cm and radii 1.5 cm and
1.4 cm. The outer cylinder is earthed and the inner cylinder is given a charge of 3.5 C.
Determine the capacitance of the system and the potential of the inner cylinder. Neglect
end effects (i.e., bending of field lines at the ends).
44. A parallel plate capacitor is to be designed with a voltage rating 1 kV, using a material of
dielectric constant 3 and dielectric strength about 107 Vm1. (Dielectric strength is the
maximum electric field a material can tolerate without breakdown, i.e., without starting to
conduct electricity through partial ionisation.) For safety, we should like the field never
to exceed, say 10% of the dielectric strength. What minimum area of the plates is
required to have a capacitance of 50 pF?
45. Describe schematically the equipotential surfaces corresponding to (a) a constant electric
field in the z-direction, (b) a field that uniformly increases in magnitude but remains in a
constant (say, z) direction(c) a single positive charge at the origin, and (d) a uniform grid
consisting of long equally spaced parallel charged wires in a plane.
46. (a) Estimate the average drift speed of conduction electrons in a copper wire of cross-
sectional area 1.0 107 m2 carrying a current of 1.5 A. Assume that each copper atom
contributes roughly one conduction electron. The density of copper is 9.0 103 kg/m3,
and its atomic mass is 63.5 u. (b) Compare the drift speed obtained above with, (i)
thermal speeds of copper atoms at ordinary temperatures, (ii) speed of propagation of
electric field along the conductor which causes the drift motion.
47. (a) In above question the electron drift speed is estimated to be only a few mm s 1 for
currents in the range of a few amperes? How then is current established almost the instant
a circuit is closed?
(b) The electron drift arises due to the force experienced by electrons in the electric field
inside the conductor. But force should cause acceleration. Why then do the electrons
acquire a steady average drift speed?
(c) If the electron drift speed is so small, and the electrons charge is small, how can we
still obtain large amounts of current in a conductor?
(d) When electrons drift in a metal from lower to higher potential, does it mean that all
the free electrons of the metal are moving in the same direction?
(e) Are the paths of electrons straight lines between successive collisions (with the
positive ions of the metal) in the (i) absence of electric field, (ii) presence of electric
field?
48. Describe the limitation s of Ohms law.
49. Describe the temperature dependence of resistivity.
50. Write the Kirchhoffs rule. With help of it describe the Wheatstone principle.