Physics 15b Assignment #3

Read sections 2.13-2.16 and 3.1-3.4 of Purcell by Monday February 21. The material intro-
duced in the reading in Chapter 3 is very important, both theoretically and because of the countless
practical applications (which we will discuss more net week). It can be very difficult because there
is something indirect about the logic. Because charges can move around inside conductors in re-
sponse to the electric field, we don’t know where the charges are until we know the field. But
because the charges affect the field, we don’t know the field until we know where the charges are!
Here the potential with its remarkable mathematical properties comes to our rescue and cuts this
Gordian knot.

Q&A questions to be answered on the Physics 15b website before 11pm on Monday,
February 21:

3QA-1. ~ is given by
Suppose the vector field K
~ = (a eb y , a eb z , a eb x )
K (3QA-1.1)

Which of the following is correct

~ =0
A : curl(curl K)
~ = b2 K
B: curl(curl K) ~
~ = −b2 K
C : curl(curl K) ~

D: None of the above.

3QA-2. Which of the following is the best answer to problem 3.5 in Purcell?
A charge Q is located h cm above a conducting plane, just as in Fig. 3.8a. Asked
to predict the amount of work that would have to be done to move this charge out to
infinite distance, one student says that it is the same as the work required to separate
to infinite distance two charges, −Q and Q which are initially 2h cm apart, hence
W = Q2 /2h. Another students calculates the force that acts on the charge as it is
being moved and integrates F dx, but gets a different answer. What did the second
student get, and who is right?
Q2
A : The second student got h
and the first student was right.
Q2
B: The second student got h
and the second student was right.
Q2
C : The second student got 4h
and the first student was right.
Q2
D: The second student got 4h
and the second student was right.
E : None of the above.

In addition, there are some survey questions and feedback questions.

1
 Problems due at the beginning of class on Thursday, February 24 —

3-1. Consider the vector field

F~ = (b x2 , b y 2 , b z 2 ) (3-1.1)
and the fixed vector
~e0 = (1, 1, 1) (3-1.2)

a. ~ = ~e0 × F~
Find G

b. ~
Find curl G

c. ~
Find curl(curl G)

3-2. Problem 3.1 in Purcell.

A spherical conductor A contains two spherical cavities. The total charge on the con-
ductor itself is zero. However, there is a point charge qb at the center of one cavity
and qc at the center of the other. A considerable distance r away is another charge qd .
What force acts on each of the four objects, A, qb , qc , qd ? Which answers, if any, are
only approximate and depend on r being relatively large?

3-3. Problem 3.9 in Purcell.

Locate two charges q each and two charges −q each on the corners of a square, with
like charges diagonally opposite one another. Show that there are two equipotential
surfaces that are planes. In the way obtain, and sketch qualitatively, the field of a
single point charge located symmetrically in the inside corner formed by bending a
metal sheet through a right angle. Which configurations of conducting planes and
point charges can be solved this way and which can’t? How about a point charge
located on the bisector of a 120◦ dihedral angle between two conducting planes?

3-4. Problem 3.3 in Purcell.

In the field of the point chage over the plane (Fig. 3.9), if you follow a field line starts
out from the point charge in a horizontal direction, that is, parallel to the plane, where
does it meet the surface of the conductor? (You’ll need Gauss’s law and a simple
integration.)