Solutions for HW1

Problem 1.1: Four identical point charges q are placed at the corners of a square with side a.
Find the net force (magnitude and direction) acting on each of the charges, and the potential
energy of the system. The charges are located in vacuum.

Figure 1S.1 Forces acting on charge q1 from charges q2, q3, and q4.
Solution: Figure 1S.1 illustrates the forces exerted by charges q2, q3, and q4 on charge q1. Since
the charges are equal to each other and two of them (q2 and q3) are at the same distance from
charge q1, it follows that the magnitude of forces F21 and F31 are equal to each other:
qq
F21 = F31 = 1 2 2 .
4pe 0a
The distance between the charges q1 and q4 is equal to a 2 . The magnitude of force F41 is
equal to:
q1q4
F41 =
.
4pe 0 2a 2
In order to find the resultant of all the forces it is necessary to add vectors:

F21 F31 F41 F1

Let us denote: F21 F31 F . The magnitude of force F is equal to:

F ( F21 ) 2 ( F31 ) 2 2F21,

F =

2 q1 q2

4pe 0a 2

Forces F and F41 act along the same direction; thus F1 is equal to:
1

F1 F F41,

F1 =

2q2q1

4pe 0a

F1 =

q1q4

4pe 0 2a

q2
8pe 0a 2

q2

1
( 2 + ),
2
4pe 0a
2

(2 2 +1).

The resultant force F1 is directed along the diagonal of the square. Similarly, one can find the
forces acting on each of the charges q2 , q3 and q4 . It is easy to show that the magnitude of
forces F1 , F2 , F3 , and F4 are equal to each other.
The potential energy of the system of charges is the sum :

U U12 U13 U14 U 23 U 24 U34 .

Here U ij is the interaction energy between charges qi and q j . Since the charges are point-like,
then:

U12 = U 23 = U 34 = U14 =
U13 = U 24 =
U=

q2
4pe 0 a

q2
4pe 0a 2

4q2
2q2
1 q2
+
=
(4 + 2) .
4pe 0a 4pe a 2 4pe 0 a
0

Problem 1.5: Find the work that must be done by an external agent to move a small electric
dipole of dipole moment p from the surface of a uniformly charged sphere to infinity. The
sphere radius is equal to R and its charge equal to q. The dipole moment is oriented radially (see
Fig. 1S.3).

Figure 1S.3 Interaction of a charged sphere with an electric dipole.

2

Solution: As shown by Gauss Law, the electric field outside a uniformly charged sphere in
space is the same as the field of a point charge placed at the center of the sphere:

Qr
4 0 r 3

If a dipole with a moment p ql and a distance between the charges q and +q equal to l, the
work necessary to move the negative charge, in accordance with Eq. 1.24:

ke qQ
, where r1 R l / 2
r1

and to move the positive charge:

ke qQ
, where r2 R l / 2
r2

Thus, work done to move the dipole from the surface of the sphere to infinity is equal to:

W W W ke qQ(

r r
1 1
Qp
1
(l<<R and ke
)
) ke qQ 1 2
2
r2 r1
r1r2
4 0 R
4 0

Problem 1.6: Consider an insulating sphere with a radius R, uniformly charged over its volume
with a total charge Q. Determine the energy of the electric field inside and outside the sphere, if
the electric field in the sphere and outside of the sphere are:

k eQ
r 2 , r R ,
E r
k eQ r , r R .
R 2 R
Solution: Outside the sphere, the field is equal to the field of the point charge Q placed at the
sphere center as shown above. Inside the sphere, the field at a point located at a distance r from
its center is the field generated by a point charge Q(in) = Qr3/R3 placed at the sphere center and
equal to the charge inside the sphere with the radius r (the volume of the whole sphere is

4 R3 / 3 and the volume of sphere of radius r that contributes to the potential is 4 r 3 / 3 ) .

Fig. 1S.4 shows distribution of the electric field given by the above relation. Let us introduce this
expression into the Eq. (1.34) for the energy density of the electric field and take into account
Eq. (1.4) of the text:
3

1
,
keQ r 4
ue (r )

8 r 2
,
R 6
2

r R,
r R.

Figure 1S.4 Electric field of a uniformly charged dielectric sphere.

We will calculate the electric field energy U1 outside the insulating sphere and the energy U2
inside the sphere using Eqs. (1.35) of the text . Given the spherical symmetry of the problem, the
volume element d (Vol ) 4 r dr . The following relations give these energies:
2

keQ 2 4p r 2
ke Q 2
U1 =
dr =
,
8p R r 4
2R
keQ 2 R 4p r 2 r 2
ke Q 2
U2 =
dr =
.
8p 0 R6
10R
The ratio U1 / U 2 of the energies outside and inside the sphere does not depend on the sphere
radius and is equal to 5.

Problem 1.9: Determine the electric field E of an electric dipole with a dipole moment p at a
point located at a distance r and r from the charges q and q as shown in Fig. 1.9 of the
text. Assume that r and r are much larger than the charge separation l .
Solution:
In textbook, we obtain the following expression for the dipole potential:

dip ke

ql cos
q l r
x
ke 3 ke ql 2
2
r
r
( x y 2 )3/2

According to Eq. (1.49), in two dimensional system we can write

E grad
i
j,

where

3
( x 2 y 2 )3/2 x ( x 2 y 2 )1/2 2 x
k ql

x
2
ke ql [ 2
] ke ql[
] 2 e 2 5/2 ( y 2 2 x 2 )
2 3/2
2
2 3
x
x ( x y )
(x y )
(x y )

k ql

x
3
2y
ke ql [ 2
] ke qlx( ) 2
2 e 2 5/2 (3xy )
2 3/2
2 5/2
y
y ( x y )
2 (x y )
(x y )
As shown in Fig. 1S.5, we have x r cos , y r sin and r ( x 2 y 2 )1/2 ,

ke ql 2 2
k ql
5 (r sin 2r 2 cos 2 ) e 3 (sin 2 2cos 2 )
x
r
r
k ql
ke ql
5 (3r cos r sin ) e 3 (3sin cos )
y
r
r
Thus, the electric field E is

k ql

E
i
j e 3 [(sin 2 2cos 2 )i (3sin cos ) j]
y
r
x

Figure 1S.5 Electric potential of a dipole at a point A.

Problem 1.10: An infinitely long insulating rod is uniformly charged with linear charge density

1 3.00 107 C / m. A second insulating rod of finite length l = 20.0 cm is uniformly

charged with linear density

2 2 107 C / m. The two rods have their axes perpendicular to

each other as shown in Fig. 1S.6. The distance

r0 = 10.0 cm. Determine the electric force

between the two rods.

Figure 1S.6. Interaction of an infinitely long insulating rod with charge density
insulating rod of length l with linear density

1 and an

2 .

Solution: In order to find the force F we use the relationship

dF dqE .
We assume that the first rod creates around it an electric field, where the second rod is placed. If
we consider a segment (element) of length dr on the second rod its charge dq 2 dr can be
considered as a point charge.
Consider the force dF exerted by the electric field E of the first rod on charge dq. The electric
field at the location of the electric charge dq is equal to:

1
2 0 r

The direction of the vector E coincides with the direction of rod 2. The force dF can be written
in scalar form, given that vectors E and dF are parallel:

dF dq E .
Using these relations, we obtain
dF

12 dr
.
2 0 r

In order to find the net force acting on a segment of the second rod which has a charge q2 we
integrate dF in the range from r0 to r0 l :

r0 l

r0

12dr 12
r l 12
l

ln 0

ln 1 .
2 0 r 2 0
r0
2 0
r0

After substituting the numerical values we get:

3.00 10-7 2.00 107

0.300
ln
1.19 103 N 1.19 mN .
-12
2 3.14 8.85 10
0.100