A spherical shell of radius R carries a uniform charge Q. What is the electric field inside the shell?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
A spherical shell of radius R carries a uniform charge Q. What is the electric field inside the shell?
Q/(4πε₀R²)
0
Q/(4πε₀R)
Q/(4πε₀)
By Gauss's law, the electric field inside a uniformly charged spherical shell is zero.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: A spherical shell of radius R carries a uniform charge Q. What is the electric field inside the shell?
Solution: By Gauss's law, the electric field inside a uniformly charged spherical shell is zero.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand that we have a spherical shell with a radius R and it has a uniform charge Q distributed on its surface.
Step 2: Recall Gauss's law, which states that the electric field can be determined by looking at the charge enclosed within a closed surface.
Step 3: Consider a point inside the spherical shell. Since the charge is only on the surface, there is no charge enclosed within the Gaussian surface we can draw inside the shell.
Step 4: Since there is no charge inside the Gaussian surface, according to Gauss's law, the electric field inside the shell must be zero.
Step 5: Conclude that the electric field inside the spherical shell is zero.
