Question

The electric field strength produced at a point some distance away from a source charge does NOT depend on:

• A. The magnitude of the source charge
• B. The sign of the source charge
• C. The distance from the source charge
• D. The nature of the medium surrounding the source charge
• E. None of the above

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

The sign of the source charge

Electric field strength $E$ at a point $r$ distance away from source charge $q$ in a medium of dielectric strength $K$ ,is given by

$E=\frac{1}{4\pi {\epsilon }_{0}K}\frac{q}{r^2}$

we can see that electric field strength depends upon magnitude of source charge $q$ ,distance from charge $r$ and nature of medium $K$,

the sign of charge is not taken into account because the direction of electric field is always the direction which a positive test charge follows when left free in the given electric field.