Mapping Equipotential Lines

Jeffrey Gebauer and Cerisse Gabion

Abstract
This experiment was designed in order to test whether or not the physics of electric fields behave as the study of
Electricity and Magnetism says it should by mapping out the values for equipotential lines for various charge
configurations. The charge configurations were drawn with conducting silver ink on a low conducting paper and
were connected to a power source and a voltmeter which was used to measure the voltage values at different spots in
order to map out the equipotential values. While some of the results were harder to interpret due to the somewhat
inaccurate nature of the equipment, our findings were generally coincident with the physical expectations.

Introduction
For the experiment, six different charge
configurations were drawn on the conducting paper: a
parallel plate capacitor, a cylindrical capacitator, a
point source and a guard ring, a dipole of unlike
charge, a dipole of like charges, and a point charge
and a plate. When connected to the power supply,
approximately +6V was applied to each configuration
and a jumper cable connected to a voltmeter was used
to determine where electric potential had the same
value. We gathered the following hypotheses for each
configuration
a) For a parallel plate capacitor, the equipotential
lines would be parallel to the metal plates (two silver
lines)
b) For a cylindrical capacitor, the equipotential line
forms concentric circles that increase as they get
further away from the center of the circle
c) For a point source and guard ring, the
equipotential lines would also be circular and will be
the strongest at the point source
d) For a dipole of unlike charges, the equipotential
lines would form concentric ellipses that oppose each
other

Figure 1 Electric Field and Equipotential Lines for a

dipole of unlike chargesi

e) For a dipole of like charges, the equipotential

lines would form circles around each point

f) For a point charge and a plate, the equipotential

lines would stem from the point charge and into the
metal plate (silver line)
Equipotential lines are important to study because of
their perpendicular relationship to the electric field.
They can also be used to view electric potential as a
two dimensional quantity that distinguishes where the
potential is constant at different places in space.
Equipotential lines can also be applied to
topographical images of the Earth and show where
elevation remains constant in a line.

Theory
Equipotential lines are a fundamental way to
map out electric fields. This is due to the natural

occurrence that equipotential lines are always

perpendicular to the electric field. For example, when
mapping out the electric field for a given point
charge, it is easily noted that the electric field lines
will propagate in the radial direction, either outward
or inward depending on the sign of the charge. It is
also easy to notice that when doing calculations for
voltages, the values are the same for any given value
r, where r is the distance away from the point charge.
This means that the voltages, or equipotential lines,
are the same on any given circle.

Figure 2 - Electric field and equipotential lines for a

positive point chargeii

Figure 2 gives an accurate depiction of the

phenomenon discussed above. The straight lines are
the electric fields lines prorogating radially outward
from positive point charge and the circles map out
equipotential values of equal voltages.
In the case of a point charge, the electric
potential can be calculated by the equation

V=

kQ
r

where V is the voltage, Q is the charge, r is the

distance away from the charge and k is a constant. In
the case of multiple point charges, such as a dipole,
the total electric potential is the net sum of all electric
potentials in the area.ii The case of a dipole of unlike
charges is a good one to evaluate to understand this
concept. If two charges exist in a plane, one of charge
+q and one of charge q, then the equation for the
total electric potential will be the sum of the
potentials from these two points. The distance
between the two charges can be donated as 2r, so the
halfway position between the charges is r. When
evaluated with the equation above at the midpoint
between the two charges, the voltages will be

k+ q
r

and

kq
r

and when added to get

the net voltage these two values cancel out, which is

exactly what was expected. This principle will be
invoked throughout the duration of the lab report and
will play an integral role in determining if our

experimental values coincide with the expected

theoretical values.

Experiment
The experimental procedure for this lab was
relatively straightforward. To start the lab, we drew
out the 6 different charge distributions, which we
would be experimenting. They were drawn with
silver ink pens on a weak conducting sheet of paper
and connected to a power source and a voltmeter. The
distributions we explored were a parallel plate
capacitor (I), a cylindrical capacitor (II), a point
source and guard ring (III), a dipole of unlike
charges, (IV) a dipole of like charges (V), and a point
charge and a plate (VI). After each distribution was
drawn, and the ink was given significant time to dry,
we connected the power source and voltmeter to the
drawings as was outlined in the lab guidelines. With
the power source set to 6 volts, we used the loose end
of a wire connected to the voltmeter to map out the
voltages at various different spots on the paper near
the distribution. Despite seeming simple, this task
proved to be somewhat challenging. Due to the size
of the distributions we drew, the head of the loose
wire used to measure the voltages was relatively
large, so the smallest movement of the wires location
or angle gave a fairly drastic change in the voltage
reading. We experienced jumps of up to 0.5 volts just
from a minor repositioning of the wire. This problem
was solved by taking readings once the values
leveled out to a consistent value.
The voltage value was found between 8 and
12 times for each charge distribution. This was the
last step in completing the actual experiment other
than comparing our values to the expected
experimental values.

Results

(I)

Parallel Plate Capacitor

Discussion

(II)

Cylindrical Capacitor

(III)

Point source and guard ring

(IV)

Dipole of unlike charges

(V)

Dipole of like charges

(VI)

Point charge and a plate

After fine-tuning the method for reading the

voltages, our results started to line up very nicely
with our expected values. In the case of the parallel
plate capacitor, the values consistently decreased
from the positively charged line to the negatively
charged line. The charge on the positive line was
nearly 6V, which was the reading from the power
source, and on the negative line the charge was 0V,
which was the expected value.
The results for the cylindrical capacitor were
somewhat harder to interpret because the silver
conducting ink is not a perfect conductor. Ideally, the
charges should have gone from a larger value when
closer to the outer ring to a smaller value when
brought to the inner ring, however since there was
some resistance in the silver ink and the positive
charge was placed at the top of the outer circle and
the negative charge was at the bottom of the inner
circle, the most positive charges on the bottom of the
circle were not as large as the ones at the top of the
circle.
For the point source and guard circle, our
results followed a relatively predictable pattern. The
source is a point charge in the middle, so the charges
should have gotten smaller as they moved radially
out and eventually reached the outer ring. Our
readings followed this pattern, just not as accurately
as the theoretical values. Because the negative lead
was placed at the top of the guard ring, that is where
the smallest values were taken. Once again due to the
resistive nature of the ink, the 0 value was not taken
on the entirety of the outer ring. This distribution
acted similarly to a point charge, but the values to on
the upper half of the circle reached smaller values at
a faster rate.
For the dipole of like charges, our results
once again followed the theoretical values relatively
closely. The values ranged from +3V to -3V, which
corresponded to the positive and negative lead
respectively. The values we measured did follow a
consistent pattern going from positive to 0 to
negative when traveling away from the positive lead
and towards the negative lead, however the only part
of this that didnt match up was that our 0 value was
not directly in the middle between the two leads.

Conclusion
This experiment was an exploration of
electric fields via the mapping of equipotential
values. The main purpose of this experiment was
to see if these two phenomena occur in nature as
our study of Electricity and Magnetism says
they should. By mapping out different charge
distributions, we were able to definitively

conclude that equipotential lines, and therefore

electric fields behave as we expected them to.
The only exception to this was when the values
were slightly skewed due to the resistive nature
of the conducting materials we used.
References
i

Field and Equipotential Lines of a Dipole of Unlike

Charge. PSTCC N.p, n.d, Web. 27 Sept. 2016

ii

"Equipotential Lines." Hyper Physics. N.p., n.d.

Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
ii i

"Electric Field and Potential in Two Dimensions."

Physics.bu.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.