Work Done on an Equipotential Surface – Rankers Physics
Topic: Electrostatics
Subtopic: Electric Potential

Work Done on an Equipotential Surface

Assertion: No work is done in moving a test charge from one point to another over an equipotential surface.

Reason: Electric field is always normal to the equipotential surface at every point.

Both Assertion and Reason are true and Reason is the correct explanation of Assertion.
Both Assertion and Reason are true but Reason is not correct explanation of Assertion.
Assertion is true but Reason is false.
Assertion and Reason are false.

Solution:

Since potential is constant on an equipotential surface, the work done in moving a charge is zero \(W = q \Delta V = 0\). This is because the electric field is always perpendicular to the displacement along the surface \(\vec{E} \cdot d\vec{r} = 0\).

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