APPLICATIONS OF GAUSS’S LAW

Although Gauss’s Law is always correct it is generally only useful in cases with strong
  
symmetries. The basic problem is that it gives the integral of E rather than E itself. To get E
we need to be able to take it outside the integral, and this is normally only possible when we
have symmetry. We consider three such cases which are especially important.

SPHERICAL SYMMETRY

Consider the system shown, consisting of two hollow, concentric, spherical, conducting
shells. A charge Q0 is placed at the center, a charge Q1 on the inner shell, and a charge Q2 on the
outer. We wish to find the electric field everywhere and the charge distribution on the shells.

First we need to talk about conductors.

CONDUCTORS

A conductor is a material in which charges are free to move macroscopic distances. By

this we mean that they are free to roam about the material and are not restricted to a particular
atom. In any material the charges can move in their atom, but in conductors they can leave the
atom. An immediate consequence is that in the presence of an electric field they will move
because of the force it exerts on them. They will continue to do so until the field is zero.
Sometimes, as in electric circuits, this cannot be achieved and the motion continues indefinitely.
However for the present we will be interested in the case in which there is not a complete circuit,
so that a zero field condition can be attained. This situation is called “electrostatics”. In the static
case we immediately see that the field everywhere inside the conductor must be zero. Next
consider the surface of the material. Here the component of the field along the surface must be
zero (otherwise charges would move along the surface until it was). There can be a field outside
the conductor, but it must be perpendicular to the surface. Finally we note that since the field is
zero everywhere inside the material we can draw an tiny sphere around any point in the interior
 
and the integral of E over the sphere will be zero. This means that there is no net charge inside
the sphere. Since we can do this at any point we conclude that the charge density inside the
sphere is zero everywhere. How can this be, since we know that the material is made of atoms
which are protons, neutrons, and electrons? The answer is that we must draw the sphere large
enough to include atoms – this simply acknowledges the fact that the charges can rearrange
themselves inside the atom or molecule.

Hence we find three critical properties of conductors in electrostatics: the electric field is
zero everywhere inside the conductor; the field outside the conductor must be perpendicular to
the surface; the net charge at any point in the interior of the conductor must be zero.

We now return to our spherical problem.

SOLUTION OF SPHERICAL PROBLEM

Because of the symmetry we know that the field must be everywhere radial and the same
in all directions. In other words it can depend only on the distance from the center and can have
only an r component. We begin by drawing an imaginary sphere centered at the origin and of
radius r where r < R1. We now evaluate
 
E  dA

We note that the perpendicular to the sphere is the radius. Hence dA points in the r̂ direction.

But so does E (could be in or out, but is parallel to r̂ ). Thus:
 
E  dA  EdA

But we also know that E is the same in all directions. Thus it is constant over the imaginary
sphere and we can take it out of the integral:
 
 E  dA   EdA  E  dA

But the area of a sphere is 4πr2. Hence:

  2
  dA  E4r
E

But the total charge inside the imaginary sphere is just Q0. Hence:
  2
 E  dA  E4r

 kQo
E  rˆ
r2
The amazing thing about this result is that the charges outside r have no effect on the field inside
r. This depended on the symmetry and we will need to examine it more closely in the general
case.

Next we draw an imaginary sphere inside the inner shell. Since the field is zero inside the
conductor we find:
 
 E  dA  0  4kQIN  QIN  0



Thus the total charge inside r must be zero. This could consist of three parts: Q0, the charge on
the inner surface of the inner shell, and the charge inside the shell between its inner surface and r.
We know that the latter is zero. Hence we must have:

0  Q0  Q1inner  Q1inner  Q0

Thus the charge on the inner surface of the inner shell is –Q0. But the total charge on the inner
shell is Q1. Thus, since there is no charge in the conductor we must have a charge Q0 + Q1 on the
outer surface of the inner shell.

Next draw an imaginary sphere between the two shells. The situation is now exactly the
same as in the case r < R1 except that the charge inside is now Q0 + Q1. Proceeding as before we
can solve the entire problem, finding:

 kQ0
r  R1 E rˆ
r2

R1  r  R 2 E0

 k  Q0  Q1 
R 2  r  R3 E rˆ
r2

R3  r  R 4 E0

 k  Q0  Q1  Q 2 
r  R4 E rˆ
r2
Q1inner  Q0

Q1outer  Q0  Q1

Q 2inner  Q0  Q1

Q 2outer  Q0  Q1  Q 2
 CYLINDRICAL SYMMETRY

We next consider the case of two hollow, coaxial, conducting cylinders with a line charge
on the axis. The inner cylinder has a total charge Q1, the outer has Q2 and the line charge is Q0.
The length of the cylinders is L.

This time the symmetry is more complicated. Obviously the field is the same in all directions
about the axis, but it need not be the same everywhere along the axis. Hence if we use cylindrical
coordinates with z along the axis we have:

E  E   , z  ˆ  E z  , z  zˆ

Now suppose we were to go a long ways away from the cylinders. Then the arrangement would
look like a point charge Q0 + Q1+ Q2. We know what the field would then look like:

But we also know that it must start perpendicular to the conductors. Hence it must be like:
Thus if we stay away from the ends the field will be only in the ̂ direction:

E  E  p, z  ˆ

The next question is what the z dependence of the charge is. Since like charges repel, we
would expect the charge density at the ends of the cylinders to be larger than at the middle. This
is because at the middle there are equal charges on each side pushing in opposite directions,
while at the ends there are only charges on one side. In the case of a flat disk for example, the
charge density is twice as big at the edge as at the center. However if we stay away from the ends
we expect the density to be pretty uniform. Another way of looking at it is to note that far from
the ends we cannot see either end and hence neither direction is special. This means the charge
density should not look different in one direction as opposed the other. That means it must be
uniform. We will assume this to be the case. Then:

E  E()ˆ

We can now solve the problem as before by using Gauss’s Law. We draw an imaginary
cylinder of radius r where r < R1. Then:

 
 E  dA  E2r


QIN  Q0
L


E2r  4kQ0
L

 2kQ0
E ˆ
Lr

We now draw the imaginary cylinder inside the inner cylinder. As before the field is zero and
hence the charge inside must be zero. This means there must be a charge –Q0 on the inner
surface of the inner cylinder. Since there is no charge in the conductor this requires a charge Q0 +
Q1 on the outer surface of the inner cylinder.
 Proceeding in the same fashion as for the spheres we find:

 2kQ0
r  R1 E  ˆ
Lr

R1  r  R 2 E0

 2k  Q0  Q1 
R 2  r  R3 E ˆ
Lr

 2k  Q0  Q1  Q 2 
r  R4 E ˆ
Lr

Q1inner  Q0

Q1outer  Q0  Q1

Q 2inner  Q0  Q1

Q 2outer  Q0  Q1  Q 2

Notice that the field now falls off as 1/r rather than 1/r2. This is because the field lines
now spread out around a circle rather than over a sphere. Of course if we go far from the
cylinders the approximations break down and we revert to 1/r2.

PLANES

We know consider the field due to a charge on a conducting plane. We do it in the same
fashion as for cylinders. As long as we stay away from the edges and close to the planes
(distance from plane << dimensions of the plane) we expect the field to be perpendicular to the
plane and uniform:

We draw an imaginary rectangular box as shown:

Then by symmetry we expect the field to be the same on both sides of the plane. Since it is
perpendicular to the plane, no lines go through the sides, and we get:
 
 E  dA  2Ea

a
Q IN  Q
A

a 2kQ Q
2Ea  4kQ E 
A A 2g0

Note that this time the field does not fall off with distance. Of course it doesn’t since the lines are
all perpendicular to the plane and hence parallel to each other. As before this is only true close to
the plane.

FINDING THE CHARGE FROM THE FIELD

We now consider the inverse problem of finding the charge inside a volume given the
field at the surface of the volume. Contrary to the problems we have just done, this can always be
solved. As an example consider the volume enclosed by the surface formed by isosceles
triangles:

located with vertices at (0,0,0), (0,1,0), (1,0,0) and (0,0,1), (0,1,1), (1,0,1) plus the necessary
connecting planes. Hence the volume is half a cube of side 1, with one corner at the origin and
lying in the first octant. Suppose the field in the region of the object is:

 E
E   xyxˆ  yzyˆ  zxzˆ  0
2
 We need to evaluate the integral over five faces. First consider the triangle in the xy plane
(z = 0):

 E
E  xy 0 xˆ
2

dA  dxdyzˆ

  E
E  dA   xy 0 dxdy xˆ  zˆ  0
2

Hence
 
 E  dA  0
face1

Next do the integral over the triangle at z = 1.

 E
E   xyxˆ  yyˆ  xzˆ  0
2

dA  dxdy zˆ

  E
E  dA  x 0
2

y  1 x

  1 x E0 E 1 x E

 E  dA


 1x  0  x dxdy  0 1x  0 xy dx  0 1x  0 x 1  x  dx
2 2 2
 0
y  0

1
E0  x 2 x3  E  1 1  1 E0
     20    
2  2
 3  0   2 3  6 2
 Next do the integral over the bottom face:

 E
E  zx 0 zˆ
2

dA  dx dz yˆ
  
E  dA  0   E  dA  0

Next the integral over the face in the yz plane:

 E
E  yz 0 yˆ
2

dA  dy dz xˆ
   
E  dA  0   E  dA  0

Finally we need the integral over the face containing the hypotenuse of the triangles. This is a bit

more complicated because dA has two components.

 E
E   xyxˆ  yzyˆ  zxzˆ  0
2

  1 1 
dA  dA  xˆ  yˆ 
 2 2 

  E dA
E  dA  0  xy  yz 
2 2

dA  dz dg

where
  
1/ 2
dg dx 2  dy 2

But

y  1  x  dy  dx

1/ 2
 dg dx 2  dx 2   2 dx

 dA  2 dxdz

Thus

   E 1 1 E0 1 1
 E  dA

 0    xy  yz dx dz     x(1  x)  (1  x)z dx dz
 2 z 0 x 0 2 z 0 x 0
1
  2 1 1 1
E0 
 x x3   x2   E 0   1 1
 
     z  x    dz  2    z dz
2    2 3 0  2 0    6 2
  z 0
z 0
1
E  z z2  E 1 1
 0    0  
2  6 4 0 2  6 4 

Hence

 E0  1 1 1  7 E0
 E  d  2     
total   6 6 4  12  2

Then from Gauss’s Law we get:

7 E0 7 E0
 4kQIN  Q IN 
12  2 48k 2