Three equal point charges, each with charge 1.95 uC, are placed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle whose sides are of length 0.250 m. What is the electric potential energy U of the system? (Take as zero the potential energy of the three charges when they are infinitely far apart.
\Three equal point charges, each with charge is .
Placed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle with side length is .
The potential energy between two charges is , where
is the coulombs law constant
.
Since there are three point charges with equal distance and charges, hte ptotal potential energy is .
Substitute ,
and
.
.
The total potential energy of the system is .