Electric Potential at Circle Center with Symmetric Charges

Step 1 of 2

The magnitude of negative charge on each particle is \(q^{\prime}=-2 q\).

The radius of the circle is R.

In order to calculate the electric potential at the centre of the circle, we need to estimate the electric potential at each point.

The electric potential at the centre of the circle due to single particle is,

\(v_{1}=\frac{k q^{\prime}}{R}\)

Here, k is the Coulomb’s constant.

For \(q^{\prime}=-2 q\),

Therefore, 

\(\begin{array}{l}
v_{1}=\frac{k(-2 q)}{R} \\
v_{1}=\frac{-2 k q}{R}
\end{array}\)

The magnitude of charge on all five particles are the same and placed symmetrically around the centre of the circle due to which the electric potential of each particle is the same.