I just spent a short time wrestling with this question with one of my more
intuitive AP Physics student. I am stuck.
Given two conducting metal parallel plates, as an air capacitor. If we
place equal
charges of opposite sign on each plate, we would expect to find the charge
on the inner facing surfaces. If the signs are alike, the charges would
migrate to the outer surfaces. So far so good?
Is there a clear way ( I cannot think of it) to determine the charge
distribution if the two plates are charged unequally. We tried looking at
potentials and thinking that the final potentials will tend to a minimum
but found it hard to write any meaningful expressions for that.
Any help would be appreciated.
Ken Fox
Smoky Hill High School
16100 Smoky Hill Rd
Aurora,CO 80015
303-693-1700(w)
303-850-7537(H)
kfox@stega.smoky.org