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AxiomOfChoice
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Homework Statement
We're supposed to find the capacitance of a system of two conducting spheres, one of radius [itex]r_1[/itex] and charge [itex]Q[/itex], the other of radius [itex]r_2[/itex] and charge [itex]-Q[/itex], separated by a distance [itex]L[/itex] (this is the distance between their centers) that's very large compared to either [itex]r_1[/itex] or [itex]r_2[/itex].
Homework Equations
We define the capacitance by [itex]C = Q/V[/itex], where [itex]V[/itex] is the potential difference between the spheres.
The Attempt at a Solution
Really, my only question, as of right now, is what approximations or assumptions we can make based on the [itex]L >> r_1,r_2[/itex] assumption. Is it just that the charge distribution on eiter sphere is unaffected by the presence of the other sphere? Such that we can assume the potential is just the superposition
[tex]\dfrac{Q}{4 \pi \epsilon_0 R_1} - \dfrac{Q}{4 \pi \epsilon_0 R_2},[/tex]
where [itex]R_1[/itex] is the distance from the center of the first sphere and [itex]R_2[/itex] is the distance from the center of the other sphere?
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