ASSIGNMENT NO.

01

Submitted to: Respected Mam Humaira

Submitted by

Maryam Fatima 21011519-033

Amina Shafique 21011519-034
Nauman Ali 21011519-036

COURSE TITLE: Applied Physics

COURSE CODE: Phy117
SECTION: C
DEPARTMENT NAME: BSCS (1ST Semester)

A charged isolated conductor. Its electric field using Coulomb’s law

and also by using Gauss’s law.
Electric field:
The force experienced per unit charged is called electric field or electric field
intensity or electric field strength.
Its unit is N/C.

A charged isolated conductor:

The conductor which is not in contact with any other conductor and has a
charge (either negative or positive) is called charged isolated conductor. It can
have definite or indefinite shape.

Electric field of a charged isolated conductor by using

Gauss’s law:
Gauss’s law:
The electric flux (The number of electric field lines passing through certain area
element is called electric flux) through any closed surface is 1/o times the total
charge enclosed by the surface.
Mathematically,
Q
e=
o

We can use following steps in order to apply Gauss’s law to calculate the
electric field:
1. Consider an imaginary closed surface (called Gaussian surface) at the point where we
want to find the electric field.
2. Find the charge enclosed by the Gaussian surface.
3. Calculate the flux passing through the surface.
4. Apply gauss’s law to calculate electric field.
Outside Electric Field:
The electric field inside an isolated charged conductor is zero.
 E=0
Proof:
Let us consider a positively charged isolated conductor of any indefinite
shape as shown in the figure below. The excess charge placed on an isolated
conductor moves entirely to the outer surface of the conductor (according to the
shell theorem).
 So here we follow some steps to
find the electric field outside the
conductor.
Suppose we want to find the electric
field at point P shown in the figure.

1. Gaussian surface:
As we want to find the electric field at point P so we consider an gaussian
surface in the form of a cylinder as shown in the figure.The cylinder has three
surfaces.
a. The top end sueface
b. The curved surface
c. The lower end surface

Now, we find the electric flux through all of the sufaces of the gaussian surface:
2.1Electric flux through the top end surface
As the electric field outside a charged isolated conductor is at the right angle to

.
the conductor.So take an area element having vector area represented by
da.Electric field lines and vecor area are parallel to each other.
1=∫ E . da
 1=∫ Edacos ∅

1=∫ Edacos 0 °
1=E ∫ da (1)
1=E ∫ da
1=EA →(1) ( da=A)

2.2 Electric flux through curved sueface:

The electric field lines are perpendicular to the vector area.

2=∫ E . da

2=∫ Edacos ∅

2=∫ Edacos 90°

2=0→( 2)

2.3 Electric flux through lower end surface

As there is no electric field lines passing through lower end of the surface so,
3=0 →(3)

2. Total electric flux:

e=1+2+3
e=EA+ 0+0

e=EA →( 4)

3. Surface charged density:

If dq charge is enclosed by da then
 dq
σ=
da
dq=σda

∫ dq=¿ σ ∫ da ¿
q=σda Or q=σA →(5)

4. Gauss’s law:
By the definition of the gauss’s law:
q
e=
o

Put eq. 4 and 5

σA
EA=
o
σ
E=
o
σ
E=
o

It is the electric field of a charged isolated conductor.

Inside field (by using gauss’s law):
As we know that a conductor is a material which has a large number of free
electrons that allows the current to pass easily. The electrons repel each other
and it has a large force of repulsion in order to reduce the repulsion force the
electrons move to the surface of the conductor. So we can say that the charge
inside the conductor is zero and we can prove it by Gauss’s law. This
phenomenon is such that “When we place the conductor inside electric field the
charges arrange themselves in such a way that the electric field becomes zero.”
It will become that the two electric fields opposite in direction cancel each other

.
The figure shows two opposite electric fields.

Proof; (q=0)
(First electric field will produced then it will be cancelled out so we can say E=0)
Electric flux
e=EA
e=( 0 ) A
e=0
Gauss’s law
q
e=
o
q
0=
o
q=0 … … … (proved )
So, if the charge is zero the electric field is definitely zero.

There are three conditions for the validity of the Coulomb’s law (coulomb’s inverse square
law):
 The charges must be spherically symmetrical (e.g. be point charges.)
 The charges must not overlap.
 The charges must be stationary with respect to each other.
And it has been proved scientifically.
As its one valid rule is the charges must be stationary, and here it is not fulfilled. As far as
isolated conductor is concerned it has a large number of free electrons which are
continuously moving and coulombs law is invalid for moving charges and we cannot find the
electric field of a charged isolated conductor by using the concept of coulombs law.

Conclusions:
 We cannot find electric field of a charged isolated conductor by using coulomb’s
law.

Reference:
 Teruo Matsushita (2021) Conductors in Electricity and Magnetism.
Undergraduate lecture notes in physics. Springer, Charm. 82150-0.