Electric Field Locus

A solid infinite cylinder of equation x 2 + y 2 = R 2 x^2+y^2=R^2 has a uniform charge density ρ \rho . It also has a spherical cavity which is represented by the equation x 2 + y 2 + z 2 = R 2 x^2+y^2+z^2=R^2 . The locus, in the x y xy plane, where the electric field is maximum is a circle of radius a b R \frac{a}{b}R , where a a and b b are coprime positive integers.

Find the value of a + b a+b .


The answer is 7.

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1 solution

At first we'll denote the Cillynder-Sphere system as the superposition of the whole cillynder ( c c ) with charge density ρ \rho and a sphere ( s s ) with charge density ρ -\rho . So, for using Gauss's Law we have: E c d A = Q e n c l o s e d ϵ 0 E c ( r ) = R 2 ρ 2 ϵ 0 r r ^ \oint \vec{E}_{c}\cdot d\vec{A}=\frac{Q_{enclosed}}{\epsilon_{0}}\Rightarrow \vec{E}_{c}(r)=\frac{R^2\rho}{2\epsilon_{0}r}\hat{r} E s d A = Q e n c l o s e d ϵ 0 E s ( r ) = R 3 ρ 3 ϵ 0 r 2 r ^ \oint \vec{E}_{s}\cdot d\vec{A}=\frac{Q_{enclosed}}{\epsilon_{0}}\Rightarrow \vec{E}_{s}(r)=-\frac{R^3\rho}{3\epsilon_{0}r^2}\hat{r} E ( r ) = R 2 ρ ϵ 0 ( 1 2 r R 3 r 2 ) max E ( r ) = E ( 4 3 R ) = 3 R ρ 16 ϵ 0 \Rightarrow E(r)=\frac{R^2\rho}{\epsilon_{0}}(\frac{1}{2r}-\frac{R}{3r^2})\Rightarrow \max{E(r)}=E(\frac{4}{3}R)=\frac{3R\rho}{16\epsilon_{0}} All of this is for r R r\geq R , but it's easy to find out that, by the same way, the electric field for r < R r<R gets: E ( r ) = r ρ 6 ϵ 0 max ( E ( r ) ) = E ( R ) = R ρ 6 ϵ 0 < 3 R ρ 16 ϵ 0 E(r)=\frac{r\rho}{6\epsilon_{0}}\Rightarrow \max(E(r))=E(R)=\frac{R\rho}{6\epsilon_{0}}<\frac{3R\rho}{16\epsilon_{0}} So the locus on the whole plane in which the electric field is maximum is a circle with center at the origin and radius 4 3 R \frac{4}{3}R

Nice problem. Should have more solvers.

Steven Chase - 4 years, 2 months ago

yeaah it really should.... but sometimes I think electricity and magnetism scares people xD thank you to like my problem n.n

Hjalmar Orellana Soto - 4 years, 2 months ago

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