Question about using Coulombs agains electric field...?

Question

If you put 10 joules of work to push 1 Coulomb of charge against an electric field, what will be its voltage with respect to its starting position? hen released, what will be its kinetic energy if it flies past its starting position?

Answer 1

This is a simple application of the laws of electrostatics and conservation of energy.

Remember the formula W = qV

It basically says that if you move a charge q through a potential difference V, then the work done is W.

Similarly, if you use 10J and the charge is 1C, then V = 10V
Hence, the voltage with respect to the starting position will be 10 volts.

When you release the charge, the process is reversed. The potential energy that you gave it by moving it against and electric field will be converted to kinetic energy. Hence, since you gave it 10J of energy to move it from its starting position, when it returns to its starting position, it will have 10J of kinetic energy, by conservation of energy. (This also shows that it will overshoot its starting position.)

Answer 2

The units for voltage are joules/coloumbs, so:

V = j/C = 10j/1C = 10 V.

For the second part, because of the Law of Conservation of Energy, the 10 J that we talked about above converted into kinetic energy as the particle flies back in the direction of its starting position.

MegN, when are you going to vote my other two answers as the best answer? I'm the only one who actually explains everything to you.