Cone flux!

Find the magnitude of electric flux ( Φ E ) (\Phi_E) associated with the curved surface of the cone.

Notation: ϵ 0 \epsilon_0 denotes the permittivity of free space.

q ϵ 0 \dfrac{q}{\epsilon_0} 2 q h 3 R ϵ 0 \dfrac{2qh}{3R\epsilon_0} 4 q h 5 R ϵ 0 \dfrac{4qh}{5R\epsilon_0} q ϵ 0 [ 1 + h 2 4 R 2 + h 2 ] \dfrac{q}{\epsilon_0} \left[ 1 + \dfrac{h}{2\sqrt{4R^2 + h^2}} \right] q ϵ 0 [ 1 + h 2 16 R 2 + h 2 ] \dfrac{q}{\epsilon_0} \left[ 1 + \dfrac{h}{2\sqrt{16R^2 + h^2}} \right] q 2 ϵ 0 [ 1 + h 16 R 2 + h 2 ] \dfrac{q}{2 \epsilon_0} \left[ 1 + \dfrac{h}{\sqrt{16R^2 + h^2}} \right]

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Laszlo Mihaly
Jan 31, 2018

According to Gauss's law the total flux on the surface (including the base) is

Φ = q ϵ 0 \Phi=\frac{q}{\epsilon_0}

We divide this to two parts: Φ = Φ C + Φ B \Phi= \Phi_C+\Phi_B , where Φ C \Phi_C is the flux though the curved surface and Φ B \Phi_B is the flux through the base. Clearly, it is easier to calculate Φ B \Phi_B , and we can use Φ C = Φ Φ B \Phi_C= \Phi-\Phi_B to answer the original question.

Simple geometry tells us that the line connecting the charge to the perimeter of the base makes an angle of θ 0 = cos 1 h h 2 + 16 R 2 \theta_0=\cos^{-1}\frac {h}{\sqrt{h^2+16R^2}} with the vertical. The solid angle covered by the base is:

Ω = 0 θ 0 0 2 π sin θ d θ d ϕ = 2 π ( 1 cos θ 0 ) \Omega= \int_0^{\theta_0} \int_0^{2\pi} \sin \theta d \theta d \phi = 2\pi(1-\cos \theta_0)

The full flux Φ \Phi is evenly distributed over a solid angle of 4 π 4\pi . The solid angle belonging to the curved surface is 4 π 2 π ( 1 cos θ 0 ) = 2 π ( 1 + cos θ 0 ) 4\pi-2\pi(1-\cos \theta_0)= 2\pi(1+\cos \theta_0) . Therefore the flux is

Φ C = q ϵ 0 2 π ( 1 + cos θ 0 ) 4 π = q 2 ( 1 + h h 2 + 16 R 2 ) \Phi_C=\frac{q}{\epsilon_0}\frac{ 2\pi(1+\cos \theta_0)}{4\pi}= \frac{q}{2} \left(1+\frac {h}{\sqrt{h^2+16R^2}}\right)

In the first line you wrote the total flux as q 4 π ϵ 0 \dfrac{q}{{\color{#D61F06} 4\pi} \epsilon_0} .

Nice solution!

Tapas Mazumdar - 3 years, 4 months ago

Log in to reply

Fiitjee GMP I guess ?

Shivam Mishra - 3 years, 3 months ago

Log in to reply

Yes. From the GMP.

Tapas Mazumdar - 3 years, 3 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...