You take a large, 10x10x10 cm# cube of copper and place it on an insulating tabl

Question

You take a large, 10x10x10 cm# cube of copper and place it on an insulating tabletop. You set up a uniform electric field aimed through one of the cube's faces. You set the field strength to 5x10^8 N/C. This sort of setup will cause a conductor to polarize, forming a thin sheet of electrons on one face, and leaving behind a thin sheet of protons on the opposite face. You want to know the strength and direction of the electric field created by the polarization (ignoring the external field), assuming that the copper has regained electrostatic equilibrium. Your goal is to use information to estimate the total charge that has built up on each face of the copper cube.

Explanation / Answer

electric field = kq/r2

charge on each face = [electric field x area ]/k= [5 x 108 x 10 x10]/9 x 109 =5.55c

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