Questions from electrostatics, magnetostatics and electrodynamics

Objective questions
Q. 1. State Coulomb’s law in electrostatics with its mathematical form.
Q. 2. What is meant by flux of an electric field?
Q. 3. State Gauss’s law in electrostatics.

Q. 4. State the Biot-Savart’s law with mathematical expression.

Q. 5. State and write the mathematical form of Faraday’s laws of electromagnetic induction.
Q. 6. Distinguish between conduction current and displacement current.
Q. 7. What is the physical significance of equations (i) ∇.B=0 and (ii) ∇.D=ρ?
Q. 8. State Maxwell’s equations and express them in their integral and differential form.

Short answer type questions

Q. 1. Explain the concept of displacement current in removing discrepancy in the Ampere’s

law?
Q.2. Twelve equal charges, q are situated at the corners of a regular 12 sided polygon (for
instance one on each numeral of a clock face).
a) What is the net force on a test charge Q at the center?
b) Suppose one of the 12 ‘q’s is removed (the one at “6 o’ clock). What is the force on
Q? Explain your reasoning carefully.
𝑞𝑄
[Ans. a) 0, b) 𝐹 = 𝑟 2 , 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 6 𝑜′ 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘.]

Q.3. Two point charges of 0.7mC and 4.9µC are situated in free space at (2,3,6) and (0,0,0).
Assume distances are in meter; calculate the force acting on the 0.7mC charge.
[Ans. 0.63 N]
Q.4. Four point charges each of 10µC are placed in free space at the points (1,0,0), (-1,0,0),
(0,1,0) and (0,-1,0) m respectively. Determine the force on a charge of 30µC located at a
point (0,0,1) m. [Ans. 3.8 N]
Q.5. Q1 and Q2 are the point charges located at (0,-4,3) and (0,1,1). If Q1 is 2 nC, Find Q2
such that the force on a test charge at (0, -3, 4) has no Z component. [Ans. -2.5nC]
Q. 6. Two small identical conducting spheres have charges of 2 nC and -1nC respectively.
When they are separated by 4 cm apart, find the magnitude of the force between them.
If they are brought into contact and then again separated by 4cm, find the force

1
 between them. Also comment about the type of forces in each case.
[Ans. 11.2 x 10-6 N and 1.41 x 10-6 N]
Q. 7. Find the electric field (magnitude and direction) a distance z above the midpoint
between two equal charges, q, a distance d apart as shown in below figure. Check that your
result is consistent with what you would expect when z>>d.

Q. 8. A point charge =q is placed at the center of an electrically neutral spherical conducing

shell with inner radius a and outer radius b. What charge appears on (a) the inner surface of
the shell and (b) the outer surface ? What is the net electric field at a distance r from the
center of the shell if (c) r<a, (d) b>r>a, and (e) r>b?
Q. 9. Calculate the field intensity at a point on a sphere of radius 3 m, if a positive charge of 2
µC is placed at the origin of the sphere. [Ans. E= 2KV/m]
Q.10. A metallic sphere of 1m diameter is immersed in oil of relative permittivity 2.5 and
dielectric strength of 8×106 V/m. Calculate maximum amount of charge that can be held on
the sphere. [Ans. 556.03 μC]
Q.11. A UHF television loop antenna has a diameter of 11 cm. The magnetic field of a TV
signal is normal to the plane of the loop and, at one instant of time, its magnitude is changing
at the rate 0.16 T/s. The magnetic field is uniform. What emf is induced in the antenna?
[Ans. 1.52 x 10-3 V]