Square Zero Field

Inspired by this problem

Four identical positive charges are at the corners of a unit-square. The net electric field is zero at certain places inside the square, other than its center.

What is the distance from one of these locations to the center?


The answer is 0.3867.

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1 solution

Karan Chatrath
Sep 15, 2019

Take any point within the square. Only along the vertical and horizontal lines of symmetry does there seem to be a cancellation of fields of some kind, by inspection. Therefore, the point of interest must be on one of these lines and there are in total 4 such points. This calculation focusses on finding one such point. The other three can be found by symmetry. One can also consider points along the diagonal. There may be points where the net field cancels out. However, this has not been checked by me.

Consider the point P P lying on the line of symmetry of the square as seen in the figure. Let P D C = θ \angle PDC = \theta . Make a line segment connecting points A and P and let P A B = ϕ \angle PAB = \phi

The horizontal components of the fields cancel out due to symmetry. The vertical components need to be worked out. Assume:

q 4 π ϵ o = 1 \frac{q}{4\pi\epsilon_o} = 1

Let the distance between the midpoint of the line D C DC and P P be h h . Therefore:

h = 0.5 tan θ h = 0.5\tan{\theta} 1 h = 0.5 tan ϕ 1-h = 0.5\tan{\phi}

From here:

tan θ + tan ϕ = 2 ( 1 ) \tan{\theta} + \tan{\phi} = 2 \qquad \dots(1)

Now, balancing the vertical components of electric fields at point P P gives the relation:

sin θ cos 2 θ = sin ϕ cos 2 ϕ ( 2 ) \sin{\theta}\cos^2{\theta} = \sin{\phi}\cos^2{\phi} \qquad \dots(2)

So solving equations ( 1 ) (1) and ( 2 ) (2) numerically gives:

θ = 0.2228 r a d \theta = 0.2228 \ rad

Another solution is obviously θ = π / 4 \theta = \pi/4 . The distance between the center and this point is, therefore:

D = 0.5 ( 1 tan θ ) = 0.3867 \boxed{D = 0.5(1 - \tan{\theta}) = 0.3867}

I have skipped a few steps here. If necessary, I will elaborate later.

Thanks for the solution. I am quite confident that there are no solutions on the diagonals. My solution approach would have found them if they existed.

Steven Chase - 1 year, 8 months ago

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Thanks for the clarification.

Karan Chatrath - 1 year, 8 months ago

@Steven Chase

I too can confirm that there are no solutions on the diagonal. I forced the system to show me a point on the diagonal and the math came out that the equations didn't have any real solutions.

Krishnaraj Sambath - 1 year, 8 months ago

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