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Physics Homework Help?

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Three equal point charges, each with charge 1.95 uC, are placed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle whose sides are of length 0.250 m.  What is the electric potential energy U of the system? (Take as zero the potential energy of the three charges when they are infinitely far apart.)

asked Feb 13, 2016 in PHYSICS by anonymous

1 Answer

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Three equal point charges, each with charge is image.

Point charges are placed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle with side length is image.

The potential energy between two charges is image, where image is the coulombs law constant image.

Since it is an equalateral triangle, three point charges are placed at equal distances.

The total potential energy of the system is image.

Substitute image, image and image.

image

image

image

image.

The total potential energy of the system is image.

answered Feb 13, 2016 by Sammi Mentor
edited Feb 13, 2016 by steve

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