An equilateral triangle is made of 3 rods, each 0.1m in length. Rods AB and BC are charged +18nC and rod AC is charged -18nC. What is the electric field at the center of the triangle?
Here is my solution, but it is apparently incorrect:
Since all of the rods have the same magnitude of charge, they all generate the same magnitude of field.
r=1/2h where h=height of the triangle.
In the triangle, EABx=-EBCx and EACx=0, so we only need to focus on the y direction.
Since this is an equilateral triangle, all of the angles are 60 degrees
My thought would be that Enet=EABY+EBCY+EAC
so Enet=2Esin(60)+E=2(2.158x10^4sin (60))+2.158x10^4
This is the answer I got, but apparently it is incorrect. Any idea where I went wrong?
What can be done to close the gap?