Gauss’s

Law

Chapter 24
24-7 to 24-9

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 Lecture Content

Table of Content:

24.7 Applying Gauss’ Law: Cylindrical Symmetry

24.8 Applying Gauss’ Law: Planer Symmetry

24.9 Applying Gauss’ Law: Spherical Symmetry

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 24-7.8.9 Applying Gauss’ Law

Basically, there are only three types of symmetry that allow Gauss’s law to be used to deduce the
electric field. They are:

•A charge distribution with cylindrical symmetry

• A charge distribution with planar symmetry
•A charge distribution with spherical symmetry

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 24-7 Applying Gauss’s Law: Cylindrical
Symmetry

Cylindrical symmetry

Consequences of symmetry:
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 24-7 Applying Gauss’s Law: Cylindrical
Symmetry

A Gaussian surface in the

form of a closed cylinder
surrounds a section of a
very long, uniformly
charged, cylindrical plastic
rod.
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PI Question 1

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 24-7 Applying Gauss’s Law: Cylindrical
Symmetry
-Figure shows a section of an infinitely long cylindrical
plastic rod with a uniform charge density λ.
-To find the field at radius r, we enclose a section of the
rod with a concentric Gaussian cylinder of radius r and
height h.
The net flux through the cylinder from Gauss’ Law
reduces to

yielding

A Gaussian surface in the

form of a closed cylinder
surrounds a section of a
very long, uniformly
charged, cylindrical plastic
rod.
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 24-7 Applying Gauss’s Law: Cylindrical
Symmetry

Uniformly Charged Cylindrical Shell A very long non-conducting cylindrical shell of radius
R has a uniform surface charge density σ0. Find the electric field
(a) At a point outside the shell
(b) At a point inside the shell

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PI Question 2

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 24-8 Applying Gauss’s Law: Planner
Symmetry
3. Planar symmetry

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 24-8 Applying Gauss’s Law: Planner
Symmetry
Non-Conducting Plate/Sheet
Figure (a-b) shows a portion of a thin, infinite, non-conducting
sheet with a uniform (positive) surface charge density σ. A
sheet of thin plastic wrap,
uniformly charged on one side, can serve as a
simple model. Here,

Is simply EdA and thus Gauss’ Law,

becomes

where σA is the charge enclosed by the Gaussian surface. This

gives
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 24-8 Applying Gauss’s Law: Planner
Symmetry
Conducting Plate/Sheet

The infinite conducting plate has a uniform surface charge density σ. Use Gauss’
law to find the electric field outside the plate. Compare this result with that
previously calculated directly.

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 24-8 Applying Gauss’s Law: Planner Symmetry

Two Conducting Plates

S
A

A'
S'

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PI Question 3

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 24-9 Applying Gauss’s Law: Spherical
Symmetry
Spherical Shell:

outside the shell:

Inside the shell:

A thin, uniformly charged, spherical
shell with total charge q, in cross
section. Two Gaussian surfaces S1 and
S2 are also shown in cross section.
Surface S2 encloses the shell, and S1
encloses only the empty interior of
the shell.
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 24-9 Applying Gauss’s Law: Spherical
Symmetry
Spherical Shell:

In the figure, applying Gauss’ law to surface S2,

for which r ≥ R, we would find that

And, applying Gauss’ law to surface S1, for which r

< R,
A thin, uniformly charged, spherical
shell with total charge q, in cross
section. Two Gaussian surfaces S1 and
S2 are also shown in cross section.
Surface S2 encloses the shell, and S1
encloses only the empty interior of
the shell.
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 24-9 Applying Gauss’s Law: Spherical
Symmetry
Solid Sphere:
Outside the sphere:

Inside the sphere:

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 24-9 Applying Gauss’s Law: Spherical Symmetry

Solid Sphere:

Inside a sphere with a uniform volume charge density, the field

is radial and has the magnitude

where q is the total charge, R is the sphere’s radius, and r is

the radial distance from the center of the sphere to the point
of measurement as shown in figure.

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 Example

The figure shows a charge –Q (red) at the center of the two spherical, NON-CONDUCTING
shells. The smaller shell (green) has uniform charge -Q. The outer shell has uniform charge +Q.
What is the E-field at r1, r2 and r3? Hint: use Gauss’ law and decide from the symmetry of the
problem what type of Gaussian surface you need to use.

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