- #1
PhDeezNutz
- 813
- 559
- Homework Statement
- In my book (Electric Circuits by Nilsson and Riedel) it states
"Whenever a positive and negative charges are separated, energy is expended). Voltage is the energy per unit charge created by the separation. We express this ratio in differential form
##V = \frac{dw}{dq}##"
##v## = voltage in volts
##w## = energy in joules
##q## = charge in coloumbs
It also says a few pages back that one of the assumptions of circuit-theory is
"The net charge on every component in the system is always zero. Thus no component can collect a net excess of charge, although some components, as you will learn later, can hold equal but opposite separated charges"
I'd like to derive the equation for ##V##
- Relevant Equations
- See above
The statement
"The net charge on every component in the system is always zero. Thus no component can collect a net excess of charge, although some components, as you will learn later, can hold equal but opposite separated charges"
leads to believe that we are always dealing with charges of equal magnitude but opposite sign in circuit theory so that is how I will proceed.
Suppose we have two equal but opposite charges
## F = -\frac{q^2}{4 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r^2} ##
Work done in separating charges (by some external influence)(minus sign because the it opposes the field)(i.e. energy lost)
##W = - \int F \, dr = -\frac{q^2}{4 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r} ##
Now when it says ##V = \frac{dW}{dq}## I get
##V = - \frac{q}{2 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r}##This goes against my intuition (possibly wrong intuition) that the actual expression for ##V## is
##V = \frac{q}{4 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r}##
Where did I go wrong?
"The net charge on every component in the system is always zero. Thus no component can collect a net excess of charge, although some components, as you will learn later, can hold equal but opposite separated charges"
leads to believe that we are always dealing with charges of equal magnitude but opposite sign in circuit theory so that is how I will proceed.
Suppose we have two equal but opposite charges
## F = -\frac{q^2}{4 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r^2} ##
Work done in separating charges (by some external influence)(minus sign because the it opposes the field)(i.e. energy lost)
##W = - \int F \, dr = -\frac{q^2}{4 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r} ##
Now when it says ##V = \frac{dW}{dq}## I get
##V = - \frac{q}{2 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r}##This goes against my intuition (possibly wrong intuition) that the actual expression for ##V## is
##V = \frac{q}{4 \pi \epsilon_0} \frac{1}{r}##
Where did I go wrong?