Tagged Questions
3
votes
3answers
133 views
Gauss' law and an external charge
Gauss' law states that the net outward normal electric flux through a closed surface is equal to $q_{total, inside}/\epsilon_0$. However, I'm a bit confused of why the presence of an external charge ...
1
vote
1answer
166 views
Finding Electric Field outside a Charged Cylinder
I'm trying to solve a problem that involves finding the electric field due to a uniformly cylinder of radius $r$, length $L$ and total charge $Q$. Well, my thought was: if I am to use Gauss' Law, I'll ...
0
votes
1answer
116 views
Why doesn't a gaussian surface pass through discrete charges?
I have read that Gaussian surface cannot pass through discrete charges. Why is it so?
I have even seen in application of Gauss' Law when we imagine a Gaussian Surface passing through a charge ...
0
votes
1answer
119 views
Applying Gauss' Law to find Electric Field
I'm in doubt in the application of Gauss' Law to find electric fields when the charge distribution is symmetric. Well, first of all: I know how to find the magnitude of the field - we just enclose the ...
1
vote
2answers
136 views
Electric lines of force
Why cant electric lines of force pass through the charged sphere? Well, basically that's how a Faraday cage works, but how can it be so?
1
vote
3answers
194 views
Why can we use Gauss' law to compute electric field?
For simplicity I'm considering only the sphere case.
In the Gauss' Law formulation we have some field E introduced by charges $Q$ inside some sphere, then we compute flux and integrate, and we get ...
1
vote
1answer
123 views
Finding the electric field on a point (x,y,z) using Coulomb's Law
Using Gauss' Law, the answer is $$\frac{Q}{4 \pi \epsilon R^2}.$$
However if I were to do the integration using Coulomb's Law, I get
$$ \int_0^{2\pi} \int_{0}^{\pi}\int_r^a \frac{\rho \sin\theta dR ...
1
vote
1answer
417 views
Electric field inside and outside a metallic hollow sphere
1) It is known that inside a metallic hollow sphere it will not experience outside electric field because of the charge separation of electrons and holes at the surface of sphere and creating an equal ...
0
votes
1answer
105 views
How does one come up with the Coulomb's law?
My teacher mentioned that field line density = no. of lines / area and the total area of a sphere is $4\pi r^2$ and so an electric force is inversely proportional to $r^2$. Actually, why can the total ...
0
votes
1answer
171 views
1
vote
2answers
212 views
Find the quantity of charge - given potential function
A potential function is given by $V(r)=\frac{Ae^{-\lambda r}}{r}$ Find charge density and hence charge.
I first took the gradient of potential to get $\vec{E}(r)=\frac{Ae^{-\lambda ...
5
votes
5answers
447 views
Paradox with Gauss' law when space is uniformly charged everywhere
Consider that space is uniformly charged everywhere, i.e., filled with a uniform charge distribution, $\rho$, everywhere.
By symmetry, the electric field is zero everywhere. (If I take any point in ...
2
votes
3answers
923 views
What are the applications of Gauss's law in technology? [closed]
Freshmen physics textbooks use Gauss's law plus symmetry to calculate the electric field.
I was wondering if this method of finding the electric field using a symmetry is used in real applications in ...
1
vote
1answer
557 views
How is Gauss' Law (integral form) arrived at from Coulomb's Law, and how is the differential form arrived at from that?
On a similar note: when using Gauss' Law, do you even begin with Coulomb's law, or does one take it as given that flux is the surface integral of the Electric field in the direction of the normal to ...
1
vote
2answers
144 views
Is it really to solve problem below by using, in the main, Gauss law?
There is an infinite cylinder surface which uniformly charged along and has a surface charge density, which can be represented as
$$
\sigma = \sigma_{0}cos(\varphi ),
$$
where $\varphi$ - polar angle ...
1
vote
1answer
162 views
What is discontinuity in Vector Fields
I am reading David J. Griffiths and have a problem understanding the concept of discontinuity for E-field.
The E-field has apparently to components. (How does he decompose the vector field into the ...
0
votes
1answer
142 views
Gauss's Law in action
Need someone to tell me if I got this done correctly
(a) Draw Gaussuian cylinder inside the black cylinder to find charge enclosed
$Q_{en} = Q(\frac{r}{a})^2$
Apply Gauss's Law
$E2\pi r \ell = ...
1
vote
2answers
162 views
In which cases is it better to use Gauss' law?
I could, for example calculate the electric field near a charged rod of infinite length using the classic definition of the electric field, and integrating the: $$
\overrightarrow{dE} = \frac{dq}{4 ...
2
votes
2answers
561 views
Electric potential of sphere
(a) I am a little confused about this part. The point at A to B isn't radial. The electric field is radially outward, but if I look at the integral
$$\int_{a}^{b}\mathbf{E}\cdot d\mathbf{s} = ...
0
votes
1answer
227 views
Could someone remind me of what we mean by zero electric field “inside” a conductor?
If I have a spherical conductor (perhaps a shell) and "inside", as in the hollow area there is nothing. The electric field is 0. But what happens if there is a charge "inside" (not like inside the ...
0
votes
1answer
86 views
Gaussian Unit of Charge and Force
I just read that in the Gaussian Units of charge The Final equation in Coulomb's law is as simple as $$\boldsymbol{F}=\frac{q_1q_2}{r^2}$$
No $\epsilon_0$ no $4\pi$ like you have in the $\mbox{SI}$ ...
0
votes
1answer
72 views
Flux if there were only one type of charge in the universe
There was this question that i saw in a book and it also had an answer given.
The Question was:
If there were only one type of charge in the universe, then:
$\phi = \oint ...
1
vote
1answer
103 views
Why is the flux 0? I don't understand this concept
!
Why does it say that the flux due to q_2 and q_3 through S is 0? Doesn't it contain a nonzero charge q_1?
Does anyone also know the difference between "no charge" vs "net charge is 0"? My book ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Why we cannot use Gauss's Law to find the Electric Field of a finite-length charged wire?
One of my physics books has a nice example on how to use Gauss's Law to find the electric field of a long (infinite) charged wire. However, at the very end of the example, the author ends by saying ...
4
votes
4answers
2k views
Infinitely charged wire and Differential form of Gauss' Law
I have tried calculating the potential of a charged wire the direct way. If lambda is the charge density of the wire, then I get
$$\phi(r) = \frac{\lambda}{4 \pi \epsilon_0 r} \int_{-\infty}^\infty ...
0
votes
2answers
295 views
Electric fields in/around conductors
So according to my notes, the field inside a conductor is zero. But what, exactly, is meant by inside?
I think we are in electrostatics for the purpose of this question.
The reason it is zero is ...
4
votes
3answers
964 views
“Find the net force the southern hemisphere of a uniformly charged sphere exerts on the northern hemisphere”
This is Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 2.43, if you have the book.
The problem states Find the net force that the southern hemisphere of a uniformly charged sphere exerts on the ...
5
votes
3answers
813 views
Charge Distribution on a Parallel Plate Capacitor
If a parallel plate capacitor is formed by placing two infinite grounded conducting sheets, one at potential $V_1$ and another at $V_2$, a distance $d$ away from each other, then the charge on either ...
3
votes
1answer
95 views
Scaling of Static Electric Field
The electric field of a point charge goes like $\displaystyle\frac{1}{r^2}$
The electric field of an infinite line goes like $\displaystyle\frac{1}{s}$
The electric field of an infinite plane is ...
2
votes
3answers
199 views
Gauss' law - changes in the magnitude of E field inside the closed surface
Gauss's law says that the flux through a closed surface which contains neither a sink nor a source will be zero.
It's quite clear that all field lines will have to exit somehow, but the
strength of ...
-2
votes
1answer
4k views
Electric field due to nonconducting plastic sheets [closed]
Two very large, nonconducting plastic sheets, each 10.0 cm thick, carry uniform charge densities $\sigma_1, \sigma_2, \sigma_3$ and $\sigma_4$ on their surfaces (the four surfaces are in the ...
1
vote
0answers
152 views
Flux from a point charge at the center of a cube [closed]
A charge of $145 \times 10^{-6} C$ is at the center of a cube of edge $.5m$. What is the flux through each face of the cube?
I would write what I have so far, but I don't know how to use MathJax.
2
votes
2answers
313 views
Gauss' law giving zero field where field is not zero?
Two plastic sheets with charged densities as shown:
I'm trying to find the field at $B$. I obtained the correct answer by adding up the fields created by each charge density. But I realized that ...
32
votes
5answers
2k views
Does Coulomb's Law, with Gauss's Law, imply the existence of only three spatial dimensions?
Coulomb's Law states that the fall-off of the strength of the electrostatic force is inversely proportional to the distance squared of the charges.
Gauss's law implies that a the total flux through a ...
