Chapter 25: Q. 6 (page 708)

FIGURE Q25.6 shows the electric potential along the x-axis.
a. Draw a graph of the potential energy of a $0.1 C$ charged particle. Provide a numerical scale for both axes.
b. If the charged particle is shot toward the right from FIGURE Q25.6 $x = 1 m$ with $1.0 J$ of kinetic energy, where is its turning point? Use your graph to explain.

Expert verified

b. The motion's turning point is located at $x = 3 m$

Step by step solution

The charge of a particle is $q = 0.1 C$

Graph of electric potential along the x axis

(a)

When electric potential equals potential energy required, the graph of potential energy and electric potential are identical.

Therefore, the graph of potential energy is as follows:

A turning point is a point at which the particles have lost all of their kinetic energy.

The particle is shot with kinetic energy of $1 J$ at $x = 1 m$ , hence the total energy of the particle at $x = 1 m$

$\begin{array}{rcl} K + U & = & 1 + 1 \\ = & 2 J \end{array}$

As there will be no kinetic energy, the turning point of the motion will be when the particle has a potential energy of $2 J$ .

As can be seen from the graph, the particle's potential energy is $2 J$ at $x = 3 m$ , and so the motion's turning point is $x = 3 m$ .

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