PY252 Problem Set 5 Solutions

As always, I urge you to perform all calculations symbolically to their completion before substituting any numerical values for any quantities. You will get a better understanding of the physics involved, and will be able to apply the same work to all problems with di erent numerical input values but the same physics.

Problem 1 (Princeton 13-IX)

See text for solution.

Problem 2 (Princeton 13-X)

See text for solution.

Problem 3 (Princeton 13-XI)

See text for solution.

Problem 4 (Princeton 14-VIII)

See text for solution.

Problem 5 (Princeton 14-IX)

See text for solution.

A spherical conductor A contains two spherical cavities. The total charge on the conductor itself is zero. However, there is a point charge qb at the center of one cavity and qc at the center of the other. A considerable distance r away is another charge qd . What force acts on each of the four objects, A, qb , qc , qd ? Which answers, if any, are only approximate, and depend on r being relatively large?

Problem 6 (Purcell 3-1)

The force on qb is zero, since the eld inside the spherical cavity is independent of anything going on outside the cavity (Gauss' Law again). A charge of qb will uniformly distribute itself over the inside surface of the cavity, cancelling the eld within the conductor, while a charge of qb will distribute itself over the outside surface of the conductor (since the total charge on the surfaces of the conductor is zero). The same will be true for the charge qc . A charge of qb + qc will distibute itself over the outside of the conductor. If there were no other charges, in fact, the the charge would uniformly distribute itself across the surface of the sphere, leading to a radial electic eld outside the conductor: ~ = qb + qc r E ^ However, these aren't the only charges in the universe of this problem; there is a charge qd some distance away. In detail, the charge will rearrange itself over the surface of the sphere; we could, if we desired, calculate exactly the 1

r2

A
qb qc qd

r
Figure 1: The charge setup for problem 4. redistribution of charge by considering the surface charges induced on the sphere by the presence of qd , and superpose this over the uniform distribution.1 . However, since r is much greater than the radius of the conductor, we can assume that this charge redistribution is a very small perturbation on the eld given above. Thus, we nd that, to lowest order, the force on the charge qd will be given by: F = q E = qd (qb + qc )
d

r2

In the eld of the point charge over the plane (see gure 3.9 in the text), if you follow a eld line that starts out from the point charge in a horizontal direction, that is, parallel to the plane, where does it meet the surface of the conductor? You'll need Gauss' Law and a simple integration. To solve this problem, we will use the results in the text which follow Figure 3.9. In particular, notice that the induced charge on the plane is equal to that of the point charge itself. As shown in the gure below, the electric eld lines emitted parallel to the plane (those in which we are interested) divide the ux in half; half is above these lines, half below. Since the induced charge at some location on the plane is proportional to the ux on the plane at that location. So, if we can nd the radius within which half the induced charge (and hence, half the ux) is contained, then we will have found the radius at which the eld lines of interest hit the plane.

Problem 7 (Purcell 3-3)

Well, the induced charge density is given to us by the text as equation 8:

z =E 4 =

where r is the distance out on the plane from the point directly under the charge, h is the distance of the charge above the plane, and Q is the value of the charge. We now integrate over the plane out to radius r0 and set the total equal to Q=2: Z r0 Z 2 Qh 2 rdr d 3 0 2 (r 2 + h2 ) 2 0
1

Qh 3 2 (r + h2 ) 2
2

And if you go to graduate school in physics, you

will

do this calculation!

r 0
Figure 2: A charge Q located a distance h above a conducting plane and some eld lines, as in Problem 7.

Q h

Figure 3: A charge Q located a distance h above a conducting plane, as in problem 8. I am not going to perform this integral in detail; you should be able to do so yourself, or look up the answer. However, the result is: 1 p 2h 2 = 1 h + r0 2 Which we solve for r0 , and we nd: p r0 = 3h

A charge Q is located a distance h above a conducting plane, as in the gure below. Asked to predict the amount of work that would have to be done to move this charge out to in nite distance from the plane, one student says that it is the same as the work required to separate to in nite distance two charges Q and Q which are initially a distance 2h apart, hence W = Q2 =2h. Another student calculates the force that acts on the charge as it is being move and integrates Fdx, but gets a di erent answer. What did the second student get, and who is right?

Problem 8 (Purcell 3-5)

We have already discussed using the image charge method to solve this type of problem, and I will assume you understand the method already. At any distance x, above the plane, the force between the plane and the charge will be the same as the force between the charge and its image a distance 2x away. The force between these charges will be: Q2 F = (2 x)2 3

d = 5 cm 1 d = 8 cm 2
Figure 4: The conducting plates of problem 9

The work, as calculated by the second student (who, incidentally, is the one who is right), will be:

W=

1 Q2 Q2 dx = 2 4h h (2x)

Why the di erence? Well, note that if two real charges Q and Q were being pulled apart symmetrically, the total work done would be as calculated by the rst student. However, the agent moving the charge Q would only do half the total work (the other half being done by the agent moving the charge Q). Thus, since we are only moving one real charge here, we only do half the work the rst student naively expected.

Three conducting plates are placed parallel to one another as shown in the gure below. The outer plates are connected by a wire. The inner plate is isolated and carries a charge amounting to = 10 esu=cm2. In what proportion must this charge divide itself into a surface charge 1 on one face of the inner plate and a surface charge 2 on the other side of the same plate.

Problem 9 (Purcell 3-8)

We will assume that the plates are in nite in extent; this approximation is valid if d1 and d2 are much less than the area of the plates. Because of this approximation, we can nd the electric elds:

E1 = 4 E2 = 4

1 2

Since the potential of the top and bottom plates must be the same (since they are connected by a conductor), we must have that the potential di erence on each side of the plate is the same. Since the potential drop beteen plates is given by V = Ed, we nd that: E1 d1 = E2 d2 Thus, we nd the following equations which we can solve for the densities:
1 d1 1

2 d2 = 0

If we use the values of , d1 and d2 given in the problem, we will nd that:

1

esu ; = 6:15 cm 2

esu = 3:85 cm 2

Two aluminized optical ats 15 cm in diameter are separated by a gap of 0:04 mm, forming a capacitor. What is the capacitance in pF . This is a straight forward application of the parallel plate capacitor formula:

Problem 10 (Purcell 3-12)

C = 0dA ; SI C = 4Ad ; cgs Thus, if we substitute the numerical values given above, C = 3900 pF = 3520 cm.