12.3 Chapter 3 639 35 charge Q. See Friedberg (1993) and Good (1997) for further discussion of this problem. ‘Another way of obtaining the above & doing the integral in Eg. (12.145), is to note that the @R/V/RE orm of the density implies that the density at the center of the disk is ©, But this equals the density atthe top of the hemispherical shell, because the shell isnt tilted there. And since the shell's density is uniform, wwe have (QrR}e = Q, because the area of the hemisphere is 2x72. Hence o = Q/2R2, (Projecting the bottom hemisphere too wouldn't change the final result for the distribution in the disk, given thatthe total charge is Q.) ‘The density diverges atthe edge of the conducting disk, but the fotal charge has the finite value Q, It is fairly intuitive that the density should grow as r increases, because charges repel each other toward the edge of the disk, However, one should be careful with tis type of reasoning. In the lower-dimensional analog involving & one-dimensional rod af charge, the density is actually essentially uniform, all the way out tothe end; see Problem 3 9/2 R? result, without hare dri ona conducting sik ‘are three basic cases, although we can actually group them all lopli nour raonng As shows in Tig. 12h pu ehae aa given point P can be close to the center, or not close fo the center or an tend, of close to an end. If the NV charges on the line are all equal, then in all three cases the segments of equal length on either side of P produce canceling fields so the unbalanced field comes from the regions indicated by the shading in the figure Le’ get a hancle om this unbalanced field. Let the pot charge at P be the nth charge from the left end. Then the unbalanced fleld comes from the charges (all equal 10 QY/N) that ae a distance of atleast ntZ/N) to the right of point P. The unbalanced feld is therefore (ignoring the reo since it will cancel throughout this problem) ++ 1 J. aaa (ata aim ‘This sum can be approximated by an integral (even for small n since we are concerned only with rough value). In the case where n-<& N (thats, ‘where P is very close tothe left end), the sum effectively extends out to infinity, so the integral equals I/n. On the other hand, ifm is of order N, then the integral doesnt extend out o infinity, However, we are concerned ‘with an upper bound on the unbalanced field, and an upper bound on the sum is certainly 1/n. So, in all cases, the unbalanced field is less than ‘oF (roughly) equal to QN/nd?. (For most of the stick, we ean say that ‘ris of order N, which means that the unbalanced field is bounded by something of order Q/L2. This makes sense because the unbalanced piece has a charge on the order of Q, and a distance ftom P on the order of L.) So the question is; how much charge dq do we need to add to the point charge immediately to the left of P, so that its rightward-pointing field increases by an amount on the order of QN /nL2, to balance out the field du to the shaded region in Fig. 12.51? The answer is: nt much, due Midpoint Figure 12.51. The shaded region indicates the part ofthe stick whose field is lett over after the canceling of the fields rom the regions of equal length on either side of P.