Indian Institute of Technology, Indore

Mid-semester Examination – January 2022

Course Title: Electrodynamics Semester: 1st

Date of Examination: 18th Jan, 2022 Time duration: 2 hours
Course Code: PH-106 Total Marks: 5 + 25 = 30

Instructions
1. Answer in your own words as far as practicable. You must explain the rationale behind each mathematical step. Your
answer should not be a collection of alphanumeric only!

2. If we find substantial text overlaps between answer scripts we will mark them accordingly. A text overlap might occur
if you copy from each other or copy from the same source. In such cases, without any discrimination, there will be
penalties (at our own discretion).

3. You should upload your answer script ONLY in the PDF format. No other formats (JPEG, JPG etc) will be accepted.
We will ignore any other formats. Please make sure that your file size is not too large (< 15 MB) so that my Gdrive
folder has sufficient space to accommodate everyone’s answer script.

4. Make sure to name your file as Name-Surname-RollNo.pdf or, if you don’t use a surname, name the file as Name-
RollNo.pdf

5. Before submission, check your pdf file for a final time to ensure all the pages are oriented and arranged properly. Make
sure that the handwriting and the scanning are clear and readable. 5 marks are reserved for compliance with all
the instructions including timely submission of the answer scripts.

Q.1) Consider an infinite charged sheet placed on the x-y plane with a uniform surface charge
density σ. You have to find the electrostatic potential at a distance z away from the sheet.
(a) Explain how the potential will be independent of x and y coordinates using symmetry argu-
ments. 2 marks
(b) Determine the electrostatic potential and field on both sides of the sheet by explicitly solving
the Laplace equation and using appropriate electrostatic boundary conditions. 6 marks
Note: No credits will be given if you use direct integration or Gauss’ theorem for part (b).
Hint: Using the information in part (a), the Laplace Eq. should reduce to a one-dimensional
problem. It might be useful to define a z-axis and write solutions for the regions z > 0
and z < 0 separately. In conjunction with the boundary conditions, you might need to use
additional symmetry arguments to connect the solutions in these two regions.
� 0 . Suppose we
Q.2) A conducting solid sphere of radius R is placed in a uniform electric field E
are interested in the electrostatic field outside the sphere.
(a) Using the idea of induced charge, argue that the conducting sphere should behave like a dipole.
2 marks
(b) What are the boundary conditions that must be satisfied if we are interested in the region
outside the sphere? Show that the same boundary conditions can also be satisfied if we replace
� 0 as follows:
the conducting sphere with an electric dipole with dipole moment p� parallel to E
�0
p� = 4π�0 R3 E

.
BTech PH106 — Electrodynamics Page 2 of 2

Hint: You should note that neither the field nor the potential vanish at r → ∞ because the
background uniform field E � 0 is present everywhere. Your job is to find how the total field
in the local neighborhood of the sphere gets modified from the background uniform field. It
might be useful to align the z-axis along E� 0. 65 marks
(c) Now, use the method of images (uniqueness theorem) to argue that the potential outside the
sphere at a distance �r from the center is given by
� �
R3
φ(�r) = −E0 cos θ r − 2 + C
r

where E0 = |E� 0 |, θ is the polar angle (between �r and E

� 0 ) and C is a constant that can be
fixed by choosing a suitable reference point for the potential. 2 marks
(d) Use the result of part (c) to calculate the surface charge density of the sphere from the
electrostatic boundary conditions and verify that the total induced charge is zero. 54 marks
�
(e) Assuming that we can define a polariztion vector (P ) in this case, determine the polarization by
comparing the surface charge density with the formula σ = P� .n̂ and verify that the polarization
is indeed the dipole moment per unit volume. 4 marks

———————–

Student’s name: End of exam