(a) In a metre bridge [Fig. 3.27], the balance point is found to be at 39.5 cm from the end A, when the resistor Y is of 12.5 Ω. Determine the resistance of X. Why are the connections between resistors in a Wheatstone or meter bridge made of thick copper strips?
(b) Determine the balance point of the bridge above if X and Y are interchanged.
(c) What happens if the galvanometer and cell are interchanged at the balance point of the bridge? Would the galvanometer show any current?
A metre bridge with resistors X and Y is represented in the given figure.
(a) Balance point from end A, l1 = 39.5 cm
Resistance of the resistor Y = 12.5 Ω
Condition for the balance is given as,
Therefore, the resistance of resistor X is 8.2 Ω.
The connection between resistors in a Wheatstone or metre bridge is made of thick copper strips to minimize the resistance, which is not taken into consideration in the bridge formula.
(b) If X and Y are interchanged, then l1 and 100 - l1 get interchanged.
The balance point of the bridge will be 100 - l1 from A.
100 - l1 = 100 - 39.5 = 60.5 cm
Therefore, the balance point is 60.5 cm from A
(c) When the galvanometer and cell are interchanged at the balance point of the bridge, the galvanometer will show no deflection. Hence, no current would flow through the galvanometer.
What is the force between two small charged spheres having charges of 2 x 10-7 C and 3 x 10-7 C placed 30 cm apart in air?
An infinite line charge produces a field of 9 × 104 N/C at a distance of 2 cm. Calculate the linear charge density.
A polythene piece rubbed with wool is found to have a negative charge of 3 × 10−7 C.
(a) Estimate the number of electrons transferred (from which to which?)
(b) Is there a transfer of mass from wool to polythene?
A 600 pF capacitor is charged by a 200 V supply. It is then disconnected from the supply and is connected to another uncharged 600 pF capacitor. How much electrostatic energy is lost in the process?
A parallel plate capacitor with air between the plates has a capacitance of 8 pF (1pF = 10-12 F). What will be the capacitance if the distance between the plates is reduced by half, and the space between them is filled with a substance of dielectric constant 6?
A regular hexagon of side 10 cm has a charge 5 µC at each of its vertices. Calculate the potential at the centre of the hexagon.
A point charge +10 μC is a distance 5 cm directly above the centre of a square of side 10 cm, as shown in Fig. 1.34. What is the magnitude of the electric flux through the square? (Hint: Think of the square as one face of a cube with edge 10 cm.)
A conducting sphere of radius 10 cm has an unknown charge. If the electric field 20 cm from the centre of the sphere is 1.5 × 103 N/C and points radially inward, what is the net charge on the sphere?
A point charge of 2.0 μC is at the centre of a cubic Gaussian surface 9.0 cm on edge. What is the net electric flux through the surface?
A point charge causes an electric flux of −1.0 × 103 Nm2/C to pass through a spherical Gaussian surface of 10.0 cm radius centered on the charge.
(a) If the radius of the Gaussian surface were doubled, how much flux would pass through the surface?
(b) What is the value of the point charge?
The amplitude of the magnetic field part of a harmonic electromagnetic wave in vacuum is B0 = 510 nT. What is the amplitude of the electric field part of the wave?
A short bar magnet of magnetic moment m = 0.32 JT-1is placed in a uniform magnetic field of 0.15 T. If the bar is free to rotate in the plane of the field, which orientation would correspond to its (a) stable, and (b) unstable equilibrium? What is the potential energy of the magnet in each case?
What is the area of the plates of a 2 F parallel plate capacitor, given that the separation between the plates is 0.5 cm? [You will realize from your answer why ordinary capacitors are in the range of µF or less. However, electrolytic capacitors do have a much larger capacitance (0.1 F) because of very minute separation between the conductors.]
Answer the following:
(a) The top of the atmosphere is at about 400 kV with respect to the surface of the earth, corresponding to an electric field that decreases with altitude. Near the surface of the earth, the field is about 100 Vm-1. Why then do we not get an electric shock as we step out of our house into the open? (Assume the house to be a steel cage so there is no field inside!)
(b) A man fixes outside his house one evening a two metre high insulating slab carrying on its top a large aluminium sheet of area 1m2. Will he get an electric shock if he touches the metal sheet next morning?
(c) The discharging current in the atmosphere due to the small conductivity of air is known to be 1800 A on an average over the globe. Why then does the atmosphere not discharge itself completely in due course and become electrically neutral? In other words, what keeps the atmosphere charged?
(d) What are the forms of energy into which the electrical energy of the atmosphere is dissipated during a lightning? (Hint: The earth has an electric field of about 100 Vm-1 at its surface in the downward direction, corresponding to a surface charge density = -10-9 C m-2. Due to the slight conductivity of the atmosphere up to about 50 km (beyond which it i
A sample of paramagnetic salt contains 2.0 x 1024 atomic dipoles each of dipole moment 1.5 x 10-23 J T-1. The sample is placed under a homogeneous magnetic field of 0.64 T, and cooled to a temperature of 4.2 K. The degree of magnetic saturation achieved is equal to 15%. What is the total dipole moment of the sample for a magnetic field of 0.98 T and a temperature of 2.8 K? (Assume Curie's law)
Figure shows a potentiometer circuit for comparison of two resistances. The balance point with a standard resistor R = 10.0 Ω is found to be 58.3 cm, while that with the unknown resistance X is 68.5 cm. Determine the value of X. What might you do if you failed to find a balance point with the given cell of emf Ω µ?
Answer the following questions:
(a) A steady current flows in a metallic conductor of non-uniform cross- section. Which of these quantities is constant along the conductor: current, current density, electric field, drift speed?
(b) Is Ohm's law universally applicable for all conducting elements? If not, give examples of elements which do not obey Ohm's law.
(c) A low voltage supply from which one needs high currents must have very low internal resistance. Why?
(d) A high tension (HT) supply of, say, 6 kV must have a very large internal resistance. Why?
Two concentric circular coils X and Y of radii 16 cm and 10 cm, respectively, lie in the same vertical plane containing the north to south direction. Coil X has 20 turns and carries a current of 16 A; coil Y has 25 turns and carries a current of 18 A. The sense of the current in X is anticlockwise, and clockwise in Y, for an observer looking at the coils facing west. Give the magnitude and direction of the net magnetic field due to the coils at their centre.
(a) For what kinetic energy of a neutron will the associated de Broglie wavelength be 1.40 × 10 −10 m?
(b) Also find the de Broglie wavelength of a neutron, in thermal equilibrium with matter, having an average kinetic energy of (3/2) kT at 300 K.