01/10/2019

PHY121 Applied Physics for Engineers

Electrostatics (Cont…)
LECTURE # 05

By
Muhammad Kaleem Ullah
Lecturer
Department of Physics

Outlines
1. Electric field due to a Charged Disk
2. Charge in a Uniform Electric Field

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A disc of radius R has a uniform charge per unit area .

Calculate the electric field at a point P along the central axis of
the disc at a distance x0 from its center.

dQ The disc is made of

concentric rings. The
r
area of a ring at a
P x radius r is 2rdr, and
R x0
the charge on each ring
is (2rdr).

We can use the equation on the previous slide for the electric
field due to a ring, replace a by r, and integrate from r=0 to
r=R.
kx 02rdr
dE ring  .
2 3/ 2
x 2
0 r  Caution! I’ve switched
the “meaning” of r!

dQ

r
P x
R x0

kx 02rdr R 2r dr
Ex   dE x    kx 0 
2 3/ 2 3/ 2
disc disc x 2
0 r  0
x 2
0  r2 

R
  x 2  r 2 1/ 2   
 0
  x0 x0 
E x  kx 0   2k 
 1/ 2   x 0  x 2  R 2 1/ 2 
 0  0 

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Example: Calculate the electric field at a distance x0 from an

infinite plane sheet with a uniform charge density .

Treat the infinite sheet as disc of infinite radius.

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Let R and use k  to get
40


E sheet  .
20

Interesting...does not depend on distance from the sheet.

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END OF LECTURE