Equipotential lines Essay Example

Equipotential lines Paper To visualize an electric potential interaction between two electrodes and to sketch the resulting configuration as it creates a 2-dimensional electric field that can be used to map 2-D, equipotential lines. Method: With an electric potential meter (also known as a volt meter or Galvanometer), find points on the paper that have no potential difference between them, where the voltage reads at 0.Using a battery and a voltmeter, take a mapping board, a U-shaped probe, two clear plastic templates, and five different plates of various designs and create a mapping board that will take the design that has been lined up with the screw holes, and connect it to a battery, and using a piece of graph paper, trace the resulting equipotential lines with a design template to provide a frame of reference for the electric field that is being produced for the template. Using the probe, lightly slide it over the board ball end on the underside and connect one lead wire of the voltmeter to it. We will write a custom essay sample on Equipotential lines specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Equipotential lines specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Equipotential lines specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Then connect the other lead (the one besides the black one) to the banana jack numbered E1. As you guide the probe along, without applying pressure, when you find a null point where the voltmeter reads 0 volts, then mark it as it is a point with the same potential as E1. Continue to mark points until you have enough to trace an equipotential line, repeat this from jack E1 through E7. Do this procedure of E1 through E7 for each of the five given plates: parallel plate, two point, point and plate, Faraday ice pail, and insulator and conductor in a field. After getting five separate pages for each plate, add E-field lines to each diagram remembering that electric field lines run perpendicular to the equipotential surfaces and those electric field lines will never cross one another. Make sure to give the direction of your E-field lines and label which pole is positive, and which is negative on the sketches. he reason why equipotential lines near a conductor’s surface are parallel to it is because when there is a charged surface, as it is along the conductor’s surface, it makes it so that the electric field lines go parallel to it. As voltage goes up along the electric field lines, there will always be points that are parallel to these lines at which there is no voltage, or rather the equipotential line shows up perpendicular to the electric field lines. And why are the equipotential lines near the insulator surface perpendicular to the surface? Think of the way a topographical map looks, the steeper a hill the more the lines will indicate that it is so, just like with equipotential lines, the â€Å"steeper† the voltage is near an insulator, the more the equipotential lines will show up as going perpendicular to how the electric field lines are going. For the parallel plate and two point examples, when the lines had less distance between them, the electric field strength was constant, but as the lines grew apart, the electric field strength went down and subsequently so did the equipotential lines distance from each other increased because there was a less steep gradient of voltage value. This lab provided a visualization of the way electric field lines behave around insulators and conductors, as well as how their being perpendicular or close together indicates the surrounding voltage and direction of equipotential lines. Basically a charged surface is connected to an electric field which is shown by the lines that are perpendicular to that charged surface. The voltage â€Å"slope† if one can visualize it that way (like in the topographical map) is corresponding to these lines. Each line indicates that there will be points that will pop up as the same potential, and hence why there ends up being equipotential when the voltage goes to zero, and this is when all these points are at ninety degrees or perpendicular to the force lines. And then when there are lines of equipotential, just like with the topographical map, the closer the line are to each other (the more â€Å"squished together† they are), the steeper the voltage â€Å"slope† or voltage gradient will end up being. And if the voltage gradient is more sloped or steeper than the insulator can stand, then the insulator will break down (think of how lightning has to break down the insulator that the Earth’s atmosphere has that would inhibit anything less than a huge amount of voltage between opposite charges).