Question #125

The photograph below shows two charged metal pizza pans that have been charged with equal and opposite charges and act as a parallel plate capacitor. The electrostatic voltmeter measures the voltage across the plates.

Suppose that the plates are charged, and the voltmeter reads some voltage "V₀." When the plates are moved apart, what, if anything will happen to the voltage?

When the plates are pulled apart, the voltage will:

• (a) become greater than V₀.
• (b) become less than V₀.
• (c) remain the same.

Click here for Answer #125 after October 21, 2002.

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