Question

Certain sharks can detect an electric field as weak as 1.0 μV/m. To grasp how weak this field is, if you wanted to produce it between two parallel metal plates by connecting an ordinary 1.5-V AA battery across these plates, how far apart would the plates have to be?

A) 1.5 meters
B) 15 meters
C) 150 meters
D) 1500 meters

Answer 1

The distance between two metal plates needed to produce an electric field of 1.0 μV/m with a 1.5-V battery is 1500 meters. The formula used is E = V/d, where E is electric field strength, V is voltage, and d is distance between the plates.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find out how far apart two metal plates need to be to produce an electric field of 1.0 μV/m when a 1.5-V AA battery is connected across them, we can use the formula for electric field (E) between parallel plates: E = V/d, where E is the electric field strength, V is the voltage, and d is the distance between the plates.

Given E = 1.0 μV/m = 1.0 x 10^-6 V/m and V = 1.5 V, we can rearrange the formula to solve for d: d = V / E.

When we plug in the values, we get: d = 1.5 V / 1.0 x 10^-6 V/m = 1,500,000 m, which simplifies to 1500 meters.

Therefore, the plates would need to be 1500 meters apart in order to create an electric field of 1.0 μV/m, which makes the correct answer D) 1500 meters.