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Equipotential surfaces at a very large distance from a collection of charges whose total sum is not zero are approximately ______.

Asked in GSEB Board March 2023 · Equipotential surfaces and V-r graphs

• (1) paraboloids
• (2) planes
• (3) spheres
• (4) ellipsoid

Step-by-step solution

Why the other options are wrong

• (1) Paraboloids are not the equipotentials here: far away the net charge acts like a single point charge, and the equipotentials of a point charge are spheres.
• (2) Planes are the equipotentials of a uniform field, such as the field between large parallel plates. Far from a finite collection of charges the field is radial, not uniform.
• (4) An ellipsoid would need the elongated shape of the collection to still matter. At distances much larger than its size the collection looks like a point charge, and the surfaces round off into spheres.

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