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Been thinking about this(the question) for quite some time. Is it necessary that even in non-symmetrical cases the dielectric medium will not have any effect on the electric field outside it. Although we can use gauss's law in symmetrical cases to show that there is no effect on external field, but what about when you can't do that?

So, my question is what is an electric field outside an irregular (shape) dielectric that is polarized. What is Effect of a dielectric on the outside field? By unsymmetrical dielectric I refer to dielectrics of irregular shapes like a blob. ,egg or in general any irregular shape.

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i dont get what do you mean by symmetrical dielectric and unsymmetrical dielectric.

can you please give an example of symmetric dielectric?

if you are taking about a cuboid where 1 side is negatively charged and opposite side is positively charged electric field outside is not 0.(which is symmetrical too)

if you are talking about a sphere which has spherical cavity concentric to it and inside is negatively charged and outside is positively charged then the electric field outside is 0 because of gauss law.

but according to what i think is symmetric dielectric not all symmetric dielectric have electric field outside to be 0.(because of the cuboid example)

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  • $\begingroup$ I think he means that a symmetrical dielectric is, for example, a cube where it is symmetrical if you were to cut it in half and the unsymmetrical dielectric would be some random shape such as a crushed ball of paper. $\endgroup$
    – Tachyon
    Commented May 3, 2021 at 19:51
  • $\begingroup$ yes, that's exactly I meant $\endgroup$
    – saket kumar
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 1:14
  • $\begingroup$ but even in symmetrical the electric field outside need not be 0 right. like the cuboid example i gave above. its true even for cube that electric fiels is not 0 $\endgroup$
    – Christina Melita
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 4:59

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