All Problems

Electric Capacitance, Energy of an Electric Field

Problem 3.128

There is an infinite straight chain of alternating charges qq and q.-q . The distance between the neighbouring charges is equal to aa. Find the interaction energy of each charge with all the others. Instruction. Make use of the expansion of ln(1+α)\ln (1+\alpha) in a power series in α\alpha

Reveal Answer
W=2ln24πε0q2aW=-\frac{2 \ln 2}{4 \pi \varepsilon_{0}} \frac{q^{2}}{a}