A2L Item 202
- Description: Indicate the configurations of uniformly charged rods for which the electric field at the origin has non-zero components in both the x and y directions.
- Goal: Reason regarding electric fields
- Source: 283-11, E at origin due to charged rods
- Keywords: Distributed Charges, Electric Field, Electromagnetism, Vectors
The question for students:
For which of the configuration(s) below does the total electric field vector at the origin have non-zero components in both the x and y directions?
- 2 only
- 1 and 3 only
- 5 only
- 4 only
- 1 and 5 only
- None of the above
Commentary for teachers:
Answer
(6) Only situation 3 meets the condition. A good exercise is to have students draw the contribution to the field at the origin due to each rod. The contributions should have the correct relative size and direction.