Why the electric field is not uniform at the edges?

The straight electric field lines connecting two surfaces is a solution for the infinite charged plates. In practice, no plates are infinite: they have edges. Far from the edges (close to the center of the plates) one can still think of the plates as infinite, but at the edges this is clearly not true.

Why the electric field is not uniform at the edges of parallel plate capacitor?

And hence the approximation of “plate of infinite length” works quite well at around the middle of the plates, which gives the result as uniform electric field. But at near the edges this approximation is not true and hence electric field deviates from its uniform nature.

Why electric field lines near the surface is perpendicular to the surface?

The mutual repulsion of excess positive charges on a spherical conductor distributes them uniformly on its surface. The resulting electric field is perpendicular to the surface and zero inside.

What happens to the field lines near the edge of the parallel plates?

Normally the flux lines inside the capacitor are uniform and parallel. But at the edges, the flux lines are not straight and bend slightly upward due to the geometry. This is known as fringing effect. -ve charge over it’s surface and are uniformly distributed and are also away from edge.

How do the edges of the plates affect the electric field?

This means that the electric field near the edges of the plates is actually larger than the electric field between the plates which in terms of work done by moving a charge along an electric field line means that the electric field “remote” from the plates must be weaker (greater spacing of electric field lines)to …

Why are electric field lines bent?

When charged particles are close enough to exert force on each other, their electric fields interact. The lines of force bend together when particles with different charges attract each other. The lines bend apart when particles with like charges repel each other.

Why is the electric field uniform between parallel plates?

It is precisely because the field strength diminishes like 1/r^2 with distance from a point charge that when a charge is spread uniformly over parallel plates that have a large radius compared to their separation that the field strength over a fairly large part of the region between the plates is nearly uniform.

Why are electric field lines parallel?

The reason is that in a small region far away from charge the field lines are all part of a larger group which on an average points in one direction . So being a small region in that unidirectional field , all the field lines are almost parallel.

What fringe effects towards the edges of the plates and why?

EDGE EFFECT IS THE ELECTRIC FIELD EFFECT ON A POINT WHICH IS FAR FROM THE EDGES OF PLATES MAY BE THAT POINT IS CENTER AT THAT POINT ELECTRIC FIELD REMAINS UNCHANGED THAT IS CHARGE DENSITY/PERMITTIVITY. Fringing is the bending of the electric flux lines near the edge of the parallel plate capacitors.

Does the separation of the plates affect field intensity?

Changing the plate separation of a parallel plate capacitor As the separation of the plates is increased the charge on them decreases to maintain a constant value of V. The electric field intensity between the plates therefore falls. The electric field intensity remains constant in this case.

Where are electric field lines curved?

An electric field line is, in general, a curve drawn in such a way that the tangent to it at each point is in the direction of the net field at that point. An arrow on the curve is obviously necessary to specify the direction of electric field from the two possible directions indicated by a tangent to the curve.

Does uniform electric field depend on distance?

Moreover, the varying the distance between plates doesn’t change the electric field intensity – that’s weird, because the electric field is defined as the force acting on a unit charge, and the force according to Coulomb law certainly does depend on the distance between the charges.

Why do the electric field lines bend at the edges?

The electric field lines bend at the edges of the capacitors like this: What is the reason for this? Any quick explanation as to why they bend? To move a charge from one plate to the other plate work needs to be done as there is a potential difference between the plates.

What happens if there is no electric field outside the parallel plate?

If there was no electric field in the volume outside the parallel plate arrangement then no work would be needed to move a charge from one plate to the other via a path exclusively outside which means that there there must be an electric field outside the parallel plate arrangement. This is called the “fringe effect”.

Can electric field lines overlap with each other?

If you place 2 pairs of point charges next to each other — positive with positive, and negative with negative — then their field lines can overlap. However, much like with waves, electric fields can interfere with each other, both constructively and destructively.

Why is the density of electric field different at different points?

Since the number of lines passing through each area is the same, but the areas themselves are different, the field line density is different. This indicates different magnitudes of the electric field at these points. In (Figure), the same number of field lines passes through both surfaces ( S and but the surface S is larger than surface .