Electrostatic Practice Questions ( 9th June 2024)

1. A 500 µC charge is at the centre of a square of side 10 cm. Find the work done in
moving a charge of 10 µC between two diagonally opposite points on the square.
2. What is the electrostatic potential due to an electric dipole at an equatorial point?
3. What is the work done in moving a test charge q through a distance of 1 cm
along the equatorial axis of an electric dipole?
4. A point charge Q is placed at point O as shown in the figure. Is the potential
difference VA – VB positive, negative or zero, if Q is
(i) positive
(ii) negative?

5. A hollow metal sphere of radius 5 cm is charged such that the potential on its
surface is 10 V. What is the potential at the centre of the sphere?
6. Why is electrostatic potential constant throughout the volume of the conductor
and has the same value (as inside) on its surface?
7. Why must the electrostatic potential inside a hollow charged conductor be the
same at every point?
8. What is the geometrical shape of equipotential surfaces due to a single isolated
charge?
9. Two charges 2µC and – 2µC are placed at points A and B 5 cm apart. Depict an
equipotential surface of the system.
10. What is the amount of work done in moving a point charge around a circular arc
of radius r at the centre of which another point charge is located?
11. “For any charge configuration, equipotential surface through a point is normal to
the electric field.” Justify.
12. Two equal balls having equal positive charge ‘q’ coulumbs are suspended by two
insulating strings of equal length. What would be the effect on the force when a
plastic sheet is inserted between the two ?

13. The given graph shows variation of charge ‘q’ versus potential difference ‘V’ for
two capacitors C1 and C2. Both the capacitors have same plate seperation but
 plate area of C2 is greater than that of C1. Which line (A or B) corresponds to
C1 and why?

14. A charge ‘q’ is moved from a point A above a dipole of dipole movement ‘p’ to a
point B below the dipole in equitorial plane without acceleration. Find the work
done in the process

15. Two point charges, q1 = 10 × 10-8C, q2 = -2 × 10-8C are seperated by a distance of

60 cm in air.
(i) Find at what distance from the 1st charge, q1 would the electric potential be
zero.
(ii) Also calculate the electrostatic potential energy of the system.
16. Two point charges 4Q, Q are separated by lm in air. At what point on the line
joining the charges is the electric field intensity zero?
Also calculate the electrostatic potential energy of the system of charges, taking
the value of charge, Q = 2 × 10-7C
17. (i) Can two equipotential surfaces intersect each other? Give reasons.
(ii) Two charges -q and + q are located at points A (0, 0, – a) and B (0, 0, +a)
respectively. How much work is done in moving a test charge from point P (7, 0,
0) to Q (-3,0,0)?
18. Draw 3 equipotential surfaces corresponding to a field that uniformly increases in
magnitude but remains constant along Z-direction. How are these surfaces
different from that of a constant electric field along Z-direction?
19. Two uniformly large parallel thin plates having charge densities + σ and – σ are
kept in the X-Z plane at a distance ‘d’ apart. Sketch an equipotential surface due
 to electric field between the plates. If a particle of mass m and charge q’ remains
stationary between the plates, what is the magnitude and direction of this field?
20. Two small identical electrical dipoles AB and CD, each of dipole moment ‘p’ are
kept at an angle of 120° as shown in the figure. What X’ is the resultant dipole
moment of this combination? If this system is subjected to electric field (E→)
directed along + X direction, what will be the magnitude and direction of the
torque acting on this?

21. Figure shows two identical capacitors C1 and C2, each of 2 µF capacitance,
connected to a battery of 5 V. Initially switch ‘S’ is left open and dielectric slabs of
dielectric constant K = 5 are inserted to fill completely the space between the
plates of the two capacitors. How will the charge and

(ii) potential difference between the plates of the capacitors be affected after the
slabs are inserted?
22. Net capacitance of three identical capacitors in series is 1 pF. What will be their
net capacitance if connected in parallel?
Find the ratio of energy stored in the two configurations if they are both
connected to the same source
23. A test charge ‘q’ is moved without acceleration from A to C along the path from A
to B and then from B to C in electric field E as shown in the figure.
 (i) Calculate the potential difference between A and C.
(ii) At which point (of the two) is the electric potential more and why?
24. An electric dipole of length 1 cm, which placed with its axis making an angle of
60° with uniform electric field, experiences a torque of
6√3 Nm. Calculate the potential energy of the dipole, if it has a charge of ± 2 nC.
25. A parallel plate capacitor of capacitance C is charged to a potential V. It is then
connected to another uncharged capacitor having the same capacitance. Find
out the ratio of the energy stored in the combined system to that stored initially in
the single capacitor.
26. Two point charges q1 and q2 are located at r1 and r2 respectively in an external
electric field E.Obtain the expression for the total work done in assembling this
configuration.
27. Two point charges q and -2q are kept ‘d’ distance apart. Find the location of the
point relative to charge ‘q’ at which potential due to this system of charges is
zero.
28. An electric dipole is held in a uniform electric field.
(i) Show that the net force acting on it is zero.
(ii) The dipole is alligned parallel to the field.
Find the work done in rotating it through the angle of 180°.
29. Two parallel plate X and Y capacitors, X and Y, have the same area of plates and
same separation between them. X has air between the plates while Y contains a
dielectric medium of εr = 4.
(i) Calculate capacitance of each capacitor if equivalent capacitance of the
combination is 4 μF.
(ii) Calculate the potential difference between the plates of X and Y.
(iii) What is the ratio of electrostatic energy stored in X and Y?
30. Three identical capacitors C1 C2 and C3 of capacitance 6 µF each are connected
to a 12 V battery as shown.

Find
(i) charge on each capacitor
 (ii) equivalent capacitance of the network
(iii) energy stored in the network of capacitors.
31. A parallel plate capacitor is charged by a battery. After some time the battery is
disconnected and a dielectric slab of dielectric constant K is inserted between
the plates. How would
(i) the capacitance,
(ii) the electric field between the plates and
(iii) the energy stored in the capacitor, be affected? Justify your answer
32. A parallel plate capacitor, each with plate area A. and separation d, is charged to
a potential difference V. The battery used to charge it remains connected. A
dielectric slab of thickness d and dielectric constant k is now placed between the
plates. What change, if any, will take place in :
(i) charge on plates?
(ii) electric field intensity between the plates?
(iii) capacitance of the capacitor?
Justify your answer in each case
33. A slab of material of dielectric constant K has the same area as that of the plates
of a parallel plate capacitor but has the thickness d/2, where d is the separation
between the plates. Find out the expression for its capacitance when the slab is
inserted between the plates of the capacitor.
34. Calculate the amount of work done to dissociate a system of three charges 1 μC,
1 μC and -4 μC placed on the vertices of an equilateral triangle of side 10 cm.
35. Two parallel plate capacitors of capacitances C 1 and C2 such that C1 = 3C2 are
connected across a battery of V volts as shown in the figure. Initially the key (k) is
kept dosed to fully charge the capacitors. The key is now thrown open and a
dielectric slab of dielectric constant ‘K’ is inserted in the two capacitors to
completely fill the gap between the plates,

Find the ratio of

(i) the net capacitance and
(ii) the energies stored in the combination, before and after the introduction of
the dielectric slab.
 36. Two capacitors of unknown capacitances C1 and C2 are connected first in series
and then in parallel across a battery of 100 V. If the energy stored in the two
combinations is 0.045 J and 0.25 J respectively, determine the value of C1 and C2.
Also calculate the charge on each capacitor in parallel combination.
37. Define an equipotential surface. Draw equipotential surfaces :
(i) in the case of a single point charge and
(ii) in a constant electtic field in Z-direction. Why the equipotential surfaces about
a single charge are not equidistant?
(iii) Can electric field exist tangential to an equipotential surface? Give reason.
38. (i) Derive the expression for the electric potential due to an electric dipole at a
point on its axial line.
(ii) Depict the equipotential surfaces due to an electric dipole.
39. A 100 μF parallel plate capacitor having plate separation of 4 mm is charged by
200 V dc. The source is now disconnected. When the distance between the
plates is doubled and a dielectric slab of thickness 4 mm. and dielectric
constant 5 is introduced between the plates, how will (i) it capacitance, (ii) the
electric field between the plates, and (iii) energy density of the capacitor get
affected ? Justify your answer in each case.
40. A capacitor has some dielectric between its plates, and the capacitor is
connected to a DC source. The battery is now disconnected, and then the
dielectric is removed. State whether the capacitance, the energy stored in it, the
electric field, the charge stored, and the voltage will increase, decrease or remain
constant

All the Best