Find the self energy of a uniformly charged sphere of charge and radius .
Details and assumptions:
Give your answer in Joules.
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Consider a sphere of radius x and uniform charge density ρ . Now, we want to add a small charged shell around this sphere, and calculate the change in potential energy when that happens.
d U = − d W c , i = 4 π ϵ 0 1 x 4 π x 2 d x ρ ⋅ 3 4 π x 3 ρ
∫ 0 U d U = 4 π ϵ 0 1 3 1 6 π 2 ρ 2 ∫ 0 R x 4 d x
And we know:
ρ = 3 4 π R 3 q 0
⟹ U = 4 π ϵ 0 1 5 R 3 q 0 2
Substituting the required values, we obtain 6 Joules as the final answer.