Physics 435

Homework 4

Due September 22, 2014

1. A point charge, q, is placed inside a hollow, grounded spherical shell of radius

R, a distance a away from the center, as shown. There is no other charge
besides q and what is needed on the sphere to satisfy the boundary condition.
Calculate the potential everywhere inside and outside the sphere. Pick a
coordinate system and write V as a function of the coordinates.

a q
R

Grounded, conducting shell

Note: Griffiths asserts without proof that he knows the answer to a similar problem, where
the charge is outside the sphere (see p. 128). I want you to show that your answer is correct
by explicitly calculating the potential on the shell (at r = R).
2. A point charge, q, is placed outside an isolated conducting sphere of radius R, a distance 2R
away from the center. This is similar to the Example 3.2 of Griffiths, except that the sphere
is isolated, not grounded. It is observed that the force on q is zero. What will the force on q
be if it is moved to a distance 3R from the center?
3. An infinitely long line charge (charge per unit length, ) lies
parallel, at radius r, to an infinite, conducting cylinder of radius
R, as shown.
Show that this problem can be solved using an image line at
position r and charge density . Calculate the r and in
terms of r, R, and , that will give V = constant for all at R.

R
r

Conducting
cylinder

Line
charge