Unit 2: Electric Potential
Physics C: E&M · Unit 2 · Paper 1

Electric Potential unit test

A test on this unit alone, marked as a percentage and a letter grade — for the test your class is actually sitting, rather than for May. Answer everything, then submit once: seeing the answer to question 3 before attempting question 4 makes the final percentage meaningless.

Each paper is built from this unit’s 19 terms and is the same for everyone, so a teacher can assign “Unit 2, Paper 1” and every student sits the identical test. Multiple choice is marked objectively; the written sections you mark yourself against the model answer and rubric.
Suggested time 34 min 31 points0/17 attempted
1

Potential from a distribution

2

Potential energy of a charge configuration

3

Why field is the negative gradient

4

Field and potential can be independently zero

5

Field from a graph of V vs x

6

Potential from a graph of E vs x

7

Accelerating a charge through a potential difference

8

Electric potential of a point charge

9

Electron volt

10

Energy of assembling charges

11

Why potential is easier than field

12

Work and potential difference

Short answer 1. Define or explain: Potential inside a uniformly charged insulating sphere

3 pts

Short answer 2. Define or explain: Equipotential surfaces

3 pts

Short answer 3. Define or explain: Potential inside a conducting sphere

3 pts

Short answer 4. Define or explain: Relation between field and potential

3 pts

Free response

7 pts

This course has no free-response prompt tagged to this unit, so one from elsewhere in the course is used. It is still worth writing — the skill transfers.

A solid insulating sphere of radius R has a uniform volume charge density ρ.

Use Gauss's Law to derive an expression for the magnitude of the electric field E(r) inside the sphere (r < R).

Derive an expression for the electric potential V(r) at the surface of the sphere, assuming V = 0 at infinity.

A proton (charge +e) is released from rest at the surface. Determine its kinetic energy when it reaches a distance 3R from the center.