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  1. In Example 2.7, Griffiths' finds that a uniformly charged spherical shell, with charge q and radius R, has potential

    displaymath114

    This yields an electric field

    displaymath116

    Here ``above'' means tex2html_wrap_inline118 , and ``below'' means tex2html_wrap_inline120 , with the normal tex2html_wrap_inline122 to our charged spherical shell surface being the radial direction tex2html_wrap_inline124 . Thus

    displaymath126

    where both fields have been evaluated just above and below r= R. Since the charge density on the spherical shell is just tex2html_wrap_inline130 , we have indeed shown

    displaymath132


    1. tex2html_wrap166 tex2html_wrap168

      This means the metal sphere carries its entire charge q at radius R, with uniform charge density

      displaymath138

      Within the bulk of the shell (a;SPMlt;r;SPMlt;b) the electric field vanishes, so by Gauss' law the total charge enclosed in tex2html_wrap_inline142 must be zero. Thus the total charge on the inner (r=a) surface of the conducting shell must be -q, with uniform charge density

      displaymath148

      Finally, the spherical shell is uncharged, so compensating charge +q must be uniformly distributed on the outer surface of the spherical shell:

      displaymath152

    2. tex2html_wrap170 tex2html_wrap172

      Thus

      eqnarray69

    3. If instead the conductor were grounded, all the charge on the outer shell would escape down the grounding wire. This is the only way the outer shell can have the same potential as at infinity (with no gradient, or electric field in between them -- this is possible only if there is no net charge enclosed for the sphere with r=b). Because tex2html_wrap_inline158 within the spherical shell, we still must have screening charge -q on the inner shell. Thus answers (a) and (b) change to

      displaymath162

      and

      displaymath164

      since now the only nonzero electric field is between the sphere and inner shell surface.

  2. See worked Griffiths example 2.11.
  3. See worked Griffiths example 3.3.
  4. See worked Griffiths example 3.4.
  5. See worked Griffiths example 3.5.





Katherine Benson
Tue Apr 9 17:30:22 EDT 2002