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Physics 370 Final Exam Solution Hints

Spring Semester 2012
(Study Guide Version)
These are hints for how to solve some of the problems. This is a striped
down version of my Spring 2012 final exam. That exam (like any exam) was
not perfect as a tool for measuring student performance and I emphasized
different issues that year versus this Spring. Some issues with the 2012 final
from my notes:
Problem 1d proved particularly challenging to folks who tried it (as I
expected it would be).
Problem 2 is just one possibility for an electrostatics problem. I would
NOT assume by reviewing it that you have reviewed the electrostatics
I might choose to include on this exam.
Problem 4 introduces a way to change the magnetic flux through a
circuit... there are other ways I could play with this concept. Ill note I
assumed students know the power dissipated by a resistor is P = I 2 R.
I didnt do any questions on conservation laws or EM waves that were
non-qualitative on this exam. I may choose to do some on this years
exam since we covered these topics in more depth.
Remember, I have not presented you will full solutions here, just hints (sometimes strong hints) for how to get to the full credit solution.

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1. First some mostly conceptual questions to get you started:
(a) (5 points) A positively charged particle with charge q lies outside
a solenoid of radius a a distance > a from the axis as shown in
the sketch.
Direction
of Force

The current through solenoid creates a magnetic field B pointing

out of the page inside the solenoid. At time t = 0, the current is
suddenly cut off, causing the magnetic field to drop to zero. In
what direction will the charged particle experience a force? Indicate the direction with an arrow in the sketch and clearly explain
how you arrived at your answer.
~ field outside the solenoid, and even if there was,
There is no B
the charge is not moving, so there are no magnetic forces here.
~ due to elecThere are no other electric charges, so there is no E
tric charges. Thus, the only way the electric charge will feel a
~ field is generated. How might an induced
force is if an induced E
~
E field be generated in this situation?

(b) (5 points)Modern hair dryers incorporate a magnetometer (a

~ field) within their ground fault circuit
sensor that detects a B
interrupt (GFCI) unit built into their cords (as shown in picture
above). The GCFI is designed to cut off the current within 1/40

3
of a second if there is a short circuit. A short circuit occurs when
the amount of current running into the hair dryer (through the
GFCI unit) differs from the amount of current running out of the
hair dryer (again through the GFCI unit), maybe because the current is running through your body and into the floor. Explain the
physical principle exploited by the GFCI unit and its magnetometer to detect a short circuit.
What is the total current into/out of the GFCI block if the current
into the hair dryer is the same as the current out? Why? What
changes if you have a short circuit?
(c) (5 points) A short math problem. Starting with differential version of Amperes Law, take the divergence of both sides to derive
the continuity equation. What does this show about charge conservation and its relationship to Maxwells Laws?
Just do as suggested. The only mathematical tricks here are that
you need to know the divergence of a curl is zero and that you need
~ with respect to time
to apply Gauss Law to turn the derivative of E
into a rate of change of charge density. Do this and you should
~ J~ = . What does this mean in terms of
be able to verify
t
charge conservations relationship to Maxwells Equations?


1
~
~
~
(d) (5 points) Griffiths states that the Poynting vector S 0 E B
can be interpreted as the energy per unit area per unit time transported by the electric and magnetic fields. However in an electro~ is not as clear cut. In
static situation, this interpretation of S
1933, Sir James Jeans pointed out that if you placed a charged
sphere near a permanent magnet, you would create a region where
~ 6= 0. If we interpret S
~ to correspond to an actual flow of energy,
S
then it could appear that we have a (unrealistic) perpetual energy
flow!
So how do we dig ourselves out of this (interpretation) trap? Follow these steps:
For a region containing no sources or sinks of energy (such

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~ S?
~
as is the case in Jeans example) what is the value of
Explain your reasoning.
Using the Divergence theorem, explain how for any closed
surface surrounding a region containing no sources or sinks of
energy, the energy traveling through the closed surface must
therefore also be zero.
Remembering that Poyntings theorem is an expression for
~ have any meaning outside
the conservation
of energy, does S
H
~
~
~
of S or S d~a?
Hints for answering each of the bullet points individually:
~ represents the energy per unit area per unit time. For
Recall S
a region with no sources or sinks of energy, what would the
~ be and why?
divergence of S
Just applying the divergence theory will allow you to make
a statement about the total Poynting flux through a closed
surface.
In Jeans words:
The integral of the Poynting Flux over a closed
surface gives the total flow of energy into or out of a
surface, but it has not been proved, and we are not entitled to assume, that there is an actual flow of energy
at every point equal to the Poynting Flux.
(e) (5 Points) In class we mentioned that an accelerating charge
~
leads to a variation in the local electric field, so that ddtE 6= 0, and
a wave in the electric field propagates. Explain why, this leads
~ field, resulting in both electric and magnetic
also to a changing B
fields self-propagating as an electromagnetic wave.
Answering this question involves the careful application of Amperes
law (with Maxwells correction) and Faradays Law.

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2. The electron is an interesting particle in that based on our best measurements, it is a point particle with zero radius. That said, lets
estimate a radius for it. According to the theory of special relativity,
the rest mass energy of an electron is me c2 , where me is the electrons
mass and c is the speed of light. Imagine that the rest mass energy
of an electron was due to the energy stored in the electric field of an
electron. Assume that the electron is spherical and that the charge e
is distributed uniformly over its spherical surface with radius re . These
assumptions will allow you to determine a rough estimate of what is
referred to as the classical electron radius.
NOTE:
e = 1.60 1019 C
2
0 = 8.85 1012 NCm2
c = 3.00 108 ms
me = 9.11 1031 kg
(a) (8 points) Use the information given to find an expression for
~
the electric field E(r)
everywhere due to the electron, including
inside the electron.
Given the charge is assumed to be uniformly distributed on a spherical surface of radius re , assume spherical symmetry and use Gauss
law to eventually verify
~ (r)
E

0,
e
r,
40 r 2

r < re
r re

(1)

(b) (10 points) Develop an expression for the energy stored in the
~
electric field, W given your expression for E.
Given the work done assembling charges is given by the expression
Z
0
W =
E 2 d
(2)
2 all space
just solve for this given the electric field expression we have in
e2
equation 1 and you should be able to show that W =
.
80 re

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(c) (7 points) From your answer to part (b) and the information
given, determine the radius re of the electron assuming its rest
mass energy is due to the energy stored in the electric field.
The classical electron radius assumes the rest mass energy of the
electron is equal to the energy stored in the electric field, therefore
2
I need to solve for re where me c2 = 8e 0 re . Do that and you should
find an expression consisting of a bunch of physical constants corresponds to re . Numerically evaluating that gives a number on the
order of 1015 meters.
This turns out to be half the classical electron radius. A more correct approach assumes a uniform volume charge density in the
sphere, but it makes the problem just a little more involved.

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3. Consider a circular loop of radius R, carrying steady current I.
z

d
x

For this exercise your goal will be to calculate the magnetic field components Bx , By , and Bz at a point P which is not directly above the
center of the loop, but which is instead a distance z above the plane of
the loop. Choose your axes so that P lies in the yz plane at position
(0, y, z).
(a) (5 points) Without doing any explicit calculations, explain the
general approach one must take to solve for the magnetic field at
some location if you are given the currents and there are no particular symmetries you can exploit.
We can compute the magnetic field due to any current explicitly
(although not always easily) using the Biot-Savart law.
(b) (5 points) Show that in this case the expression for the infinitesimal current segment is d~ = R sin d
x + R cos d
y.
For the current segment d~, I note that along the circle,
x = R cos dx = R sin d
y = R sin dy = R cos d
z = 0 dz = 0

(3)
(4)
(5)

therefore we arrive at the desired expression by adding the components

d~ = R sin d
x + R cos d
y.
(6)

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(c) (5 points) Find an expression for the separation vector
in the figure.

shown

Given that the separation vector is by definition the difference between the position of P and the position of the source current
element d~ you should be able to verify the difference between the
two positions corresponds to
= R cos
x + (y R sin ) y + z
z.

(7)

(d) (10 points) Write out the integral expression we must solve in
order to calculate the magnetic field components Bx , By , and Bz
at a point P . DO NOT evaluate the integrals. HINT: You can

simplify the math quite a bit if you exploit the fact that 2 = 3 .
As mentioned in part (a), we need to solve the Biot-Savart equation, and thanks to our work in parts (b) and (c) you should now
have expressions for d~ and . So using the hint to re-state the
Biot-Savart law as
Z ~
0 I
d
~
.
(8)
B(~r) =
3
4
Then by using equations 6 and 7 to explicitly solve for
d~

= Rz cos d
x + Rz sin d
y + R (R y sin ) d
z (9a)

(I would expect you to show the math explicitly) and evaluating

for 3 , you should be able to show
Z ~
d

I
0
~ =
B
(10a)
2
4
Z
x + Rz sin d
y + R (R y sin ) d
z
0 I 2 Rz cos d
=
3/2
2
2
2
4 =0
(R + y + z 2yR sin )
(10b)

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and thus we get the expressions for the magnetic field components
Z 2
0 I
cos d
(11a)
Bx =
Rz
3/2
4
=0 (R2 + y 2 + z 2 2yR sin )
Z 2
sin d
0 I
Rz
By =
(11b)
3/2
4
=0 (R2 + y 2 + z 2 2yR sin )
Z 2
0 I
(R y sin ) d
(11c)
R
Bz =
3/2
4
=0 (R2 + y 2 + z 2 2yR sin )
~ field at
It turns out that the By and Bz components of the B
P are elliptic integrals which cant be expressed in terms of simple elementary functions. However, it is possible to evaluate Bx
explicitly, it turns out to be zero, as you might expect from the
symmetry in the problem.

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4. A student wants to build a hand warmer for the cold winter days but
decides they are too cheap to pay for batteries. Instead, they build their
own electric generator, consisting of a square wire circuit embedded in
~ The student now takes the top
a uniform magnetic field of strength B.
wire and bends it into a semicircular shape and then adds a hand crank
and sliding connectors, allowing them to turn the semicircle with the
crank (as shown) without disconnecting the circuit.

a
2

a
a
R
(a) (6 points) Explain in English why turning the crank will result
in the dissipation of power in the resistor.
A proper explanation involves using Faradays Law and explaining
how that leads to a current flowing through the resistor (which is
why power would be dissipated by the resistor).

(b) (10 points) If the student turns the crank with angular velocity
, derive an expression for the magnetic flux as a function of
time, t, through this circuit assuming the drawing shows the circuit at time t = 0.
If we consider only the surface perpendicular to the magnetic field
then we can compute the magnetic flux through the circuit to be:
= BA

(12)

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where A is the area enclosed by the circuit perpendicular to the
magnetic field. A can be viewed as the area of a square with sides
length a minus the projected area of a semicircle with radius a/2.
The projected area will depend on the angle the semicircular plane
makes with the square plane, which will be cos(t) assuming angular speed shown. Combining these ideas, you should be able
to show that the magnetic flux through the circuit is
2

= Ba

1
1 cos(t)
8

(13)

(c) (9 points) Compute the average power P dissipated by the resistor, R, via Joule heating.
I know that power dissipated by Joule heating is just P = I 2 R So
all I need to do is compute the current induced based on the emf.
Using the flux rule
d
= E
(14)
dt
I can compute the back emf in the circuit,
E=

d
dt

(15a)

So take the derivative of the flux we computed in part (b) and

solve for the emf. Then use that to compute the current through
the resistor via Ohms law and then finally the power dissipated
through Joule heating of the resistor.

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5. An infinitely long straight wire of radius R has a frozen in magneti~ = ks
zation M
z parallel to the axis of the wire, where k is a constant
and s is the distance from the axis. There are no free currents running
down the wire.
(a) (10 points) Find all the bound current densities in the wire.
~
This really is just a matter of considering the magnetization M
and computing the bound current densities using the expressions:
~b = M
~ n
K

~ M
~
J~b =

(16a)
(16b)

Using equation 16a you should be able to verify the bound surface
current density on the sides of the wire is
~ b = ks
K
z s = ks = kR .

(17)

From equation 16b you should be able to verify

~ M
~ = Mz = (ks) = k
J~b =
s
s

(18)

(I simplified the math A LOT by noting the magnetization only

has a z component).
So in equations 17 and 18 we have the solutions to the bound
surface and volume current densities. Notice this means current
is flowing in one direction inside the wire and the return current
is in the opposite direction on the surface of the wire.
~ everywhere. HINT: You can simplify
(b) (15 points) Calculate B
part of the problem by thinking of a solenoid even though this
isnt a solenoid!

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z

R
Amperian
Loop

Jb
s
Kb

Notice that the only currents here, the two bound currents, are
circumferential. This means we essentially have something like
nested solenoidal currents, which implies any magnetic field is axial. So consider the Amperian loop in the above sketch (how do
I know to use that one?) and exploit Amperes Law to state
I
~ d~ = 0 Ienc
B
I

Z
~
~
~
B(s) = 0
Jb d~a + Kb d
~ in (s) = 0 ks
B
z
(You will need to verify the math here).

(19a)