36.   The membrane surrounding a living cell consists of an inner and an outer wall that are separated by a small space. Assume that the membrane acts like a parallel plate capacitor in which the effective charge density on the inner and outer walls has a magnitude of 7.1 x 10-6 C/m2. (a) What is the magnitude of the electric field within the cell membrane? (b) Find the magnitude of the electric force that would be exerted on a potassium ion (K+; charge = +e) placed inside the membrane.

 

For a parallel plate capacitor or a set of parallel charges the electric field is found from the expression

 

Force comes from

 

 

 

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This page last updated on June 4, 2018