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 × 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.