Electrostatics PAJ

1. Free positive charges “4e” and “e” are at a distance “a” apart. What charge is
needed to achieve equilibrium for the entire system and where should it be
placed?

2. Two identical pith balls are changed by rubbing against each other. They are
suspended from a horizontal rod through two strings of length 20 cm each, the
separation between the suspension points being 5 cm. In equilibrium, the
separation between the balls in 3 cm. Find the mass of each ball and the tension
in the strings. The charge on each ball has a magnitude 2.0  10−8 C.

3. A wire is bent in the form of a regular hexagon and a total charge q is distributed
uniformly on it. What is the electric field at the centre?

4. A circular wire -loop of radius “a” carries a total charge Q distributed uniformly over its
length. A small length dL of the wire is cut off. Find the electric field at the centre
due to the remaining wire.

5. A nonconducting sheet of large surface area and thickness d contains uniform

charge distribution of density. Find the electric field at a point P inside the plate, at
a distance x from the central plane. Draw a qualitative graph of E against x for 0 < x <
d.

6. (a) Two similar point charges q1 and q2 are placed at a distance r apart in air. lf a
dielectric slab of thickness t (<< r) and dielectric constant k is put between the charges,
calculate the Coulomb force of repulsion.

(b) If the thickness of slab covers half the distance between the changes, the
coulomb repulsive force is reduced in the ratio 9:4, calculate the dielectric
constant of the slab.

7. A thin non conducting ring of radius R has a linear charge density  = 0 cos  , where
0 is a constant  the azimuthal angle.
Find the magnitude of the electric field strength
(a) at the centre of the ring:
(b) on the axis of the ring as a function of the distance r from its centre. Investigate
the obtained function at r>>R

8. A charge + 10-9 C is located at the origin in free space and another charge Q at (2, 0,
0). If the x component of the electric field at (3, 1, 1) is zero, calculate the value of Q.
Is the y component is zero at (3, 1, 1)?

9. A very long uniform charged thread oriented along the axis of a circle of radius R rests
on its centre with one of the ends. The charge per unit length of the thread is equal
to . Find the flux of the vector E across the circle area.

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10. A thin glass rod is bent into a semicircle of radius R. A
charge + Q is uniformly distributed along the upper half
and a charge — Q’ is uniformly distributed along the
lower half, as shown in figure. Find the electric field E
at P, the centre of the semicircle.

11. One end of a 10 cm long silk thread is fixed to a large vertical non conducting
plate and the other end is fastened to a small ball having a mass of 10 g and a
charge of 4.0  10−6 C . In equilibrium, the thread makes an angle of 60° with the
vertical. (a) Find the tension in the thread in equilibrium (b) Suppose the ball is slightly
pushed aside and released. Find the time period of the small oscillations.

12. In figure, a uniform upward-pointing electric field E of

magnitude 2.00  103 N/C has been set up between two
horizontal plates by charging the lower plate positively
and the upper plate negatively. The plates have length L =
10.0 cm and separation d= 2.00 cm. An electron is then
shot between the plates from the left edge of the lower
plate. The initial velocity 0 of the electron makes an
angle  = 45° with the lower plate and has magnitude of
6.00  106 m/s.
(a) Will the electron strikes one of the plates?
(b) If so, which plate and how far horizontally from the left edge?

13. In figure, the charge on a neutral isolated conductor is separated by a nearly

positively charged rod. What is the flux through the five Gaussian surface
shown in cross section? Assume that the charges enclosed by S1, S2 and S3
are equal in magnitude.

14. Point charge q and –q are located at the vertices of a square with diagonals 2l
as shown in figure. Find the magnitude of the electric field at a point located
symmetrically with respect to the vertices of the square at a distance x from its
centre.

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15. A system consists of a thin ring of radius R and a very long uniformly charged
thread oriented along the axis of the ring, with one of its end coinciding with
the centre of the ring. The total charge on the ring is equal to q. The charge of
the thread (per unit length) is equal to . Find the interaction force between
the ring and the thread.

16. A thread carrying a uniform charge  per unit length has the configuration
shown in figure. Assuming a curvature radius R to be considerably less than
the length of the thread, find the electric field strength at the point O.

17. Three point charges q, 2q and 8q are to be placed on a 9 cm long straight

line. Find the position where the charges should be places such that the
potential energy of the system is minimum. In this situation, what is the
electric field at the position of the charge q due to the other two charges?

18. A large flat nonconducting surface has a uniform charge density . A small
circular hole of radius R has been cut in the middle on the sheet, as shown in
figure. Ignore fringing of the field linear around all edges. Calculate the electric
field at point P, a distance z from the centre of the hole along its axis.

19. A solid nonconducting sphere of radius R has non uniform charges

distribution of volume charged density  = sr / R , where s is a constant and r is

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 the distance from the centre of the sphere show that (a) the total charge on
the sphere is Q = sR3 and (b) the electric field inside the sphere has a
magnitude given by E = Qr 2 / 40R 4 .

20. A nonconducting spherical shell, of inner radius a and outer radius b, has a
volume charge density =A/r, where A is a constant and r is the distance from
the centre of the shell. In addition a point charge q is located at the centre.
What value should A have if the electric field in the shell ( a  r  b) is to be
uniform?

21. What is the potential at point P due to the charge distribution as given in the
figure? Rank the situation according to the magnitude of the electric field that
is set up at P from greatest to least.

22. A point particle of mass M is attached to one end of a massless rigid

nonconducting rod of length L. Another point particle of the same mass is
attached to the other end of the rod. The two particles carry charge +q and –q
respectively. This arrangement is held in a region of a uniform electric field E
such that the rod makes a small angle  (say of about 5 degrees) with the field
direction. Find an expression for the minimum time needed for the rod to
become parallel to the field after it is set free.

23. Two equal charge q are kept fixed at –a and a along the x-axis A particle of
mass m and charge q/2 is brought to the origin and given a small

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 displacement along the (i) x-axis (ii) y-axis. Describe the motion in the two
cases.

24. A circular ring of radius R with uniform positive charge density  per unit
length is located in the yz – plane with its centre at the origin O. A particle of
mass m and positive charge q is projected from the point P (R 3, 0, 0 ) on the
positive x-axis directly toward O, with an initial speed  . Find the smallest
(non-zero) value o the speed  such that the particle does not return to P.

25. A long charged cylinder of radius a and linear charge density  is surrounding
by and earthed hollow co-axial conducting cylinder of radius b. What is the
electric field in the space between the two cylinders?

26. Three point charges of 1C, 2C and 3C are placed at the corners of an
equilateral of side 1m. Calculate the work required to move these charge to
the corners of a smaller equilateral triangles of sides 0.5 m as shown in figure.

27. Three concentric spherical metal shells A, B and C of radii a, b and c (a < b <
c)have surface charge densities +, −  and +  respectively.
(i) Find the potentials of three shells A, B and C.
(ii) If the shells A and C are at the same potential, obtain the relation between
the radii a, b, and c.

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28. Find the potential (x, Y) of an electrostatic field E =  ( yi + xj), where α is a
constant, i and j are the unit vectors of the x and y axes.

29. Find the potential V (x, y) of an electrostatic field E = 2 axy i + a (x2 – y2) j,
where “a” is a constant, i and j are the unit vectors of the x and y axes.

30. A ball of radius R carries a positive charge whose volume density depends
only a separation r from the ball’s centre as  = 0 (1− r / R) , where 0 is a
constant. Assuming the permittivity of the ball and the environment to be
equal to unity, find;
(a) the magnitude of the electric field strength as a function of the distance r
both inside and outside the ball;
(b) the maximum intensity Emax and the corresponding distance rm.

A space is filled up with a charge with volume density  = 0 e−ar where 0 and a
3
31.
are positive constants r is the distance from the centre of this system. Find the
magnitude of the electic field strength vector as a function of r. Investigate the
obtained expression for the small and large values of r, i.e. at ar3<<1 and
ar3>>1.

32. Inside a ball charged uniformly with volume density  there is a spherical
cavity. The centre of the cavity is displaced with respectively to the centre of
the ball by a distance a. Find the field strength E inside the cavity, assuming
the permittivity equal to unity.

33. A soap bubble of radius r and surface tension T is given a potential V. Show
that the new radius R of the bubble is related with the initial radius by the
equation
0 V 2R
( ) (
P R3 − r 3 + 4T R2 − r 2 = ) 2
Where P is the atmospheric pressure.

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Answers

4e a
1. The negative charge q = should be placed at a Distance from the charge e.
9 3
2. 8.2 g, 8.2  10 −2 N.
3. Zero
QdL
4.
8 2  o a3
x
5.
o
1 q1q2
6. (A) F = (B) k = 4
( )
2
4o r − t + t k
0  0R 2
7. (A) E = (B) E =
4 0R ( )
3/ 2
4 0 R 2 + r 2
8. (
Q = −35/ 2 / 113/ 2  10−9 C; not ) zero
9. R/20

1  Q 
E=
0  R2 
10.

11. (a) 0.20N (b) 0.45s.

12. (a) Electron hits the upper plate (b) x = 2.72 cm
q q q q
13. 1 = , 2 = − , 3 = , 4 = 0, 5 =
0 0 0 0
ql
14. E =
( )
3/2
20 l2 + x 2
q
15.
4 0R
 2
16. (a) E = (b) E = 0
40R
17. 2q and 8q at the ends and q is at a distance 3 cm from 2q, E = 0
18. E =  / 20 ( z2 + R2 )
1/2

20. q / 2a2
21.
(1/ 40 ) Q in each case, Maximum in (a) Minimum in (c)
R
 ML
22.
2 2qE
40ma3
23. (i) T = 2
2q2
(ii) This motion is not oscillatory

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 q
24.  =
20m
1 2
25. .
40 r
26. 99  109 J

27. (i) VA = (a − b + c ),
0
  a2 − b2    a2 − b2 + c 2 
VB =  + c  C
, V =  
0  b  0  c 
28. V = − xy + const.
 y2 
29. V = ay  − x 2  + cons t.
 3 
o r
 3r  0 R 3
30. ( a ) E =  1 − 4R  for r  R, E = for r  R;
3 0
  120r 2
1 R 2
(b ) Emax = 0 for rm = R.
9 0 3

31. E =
0
30 ar 2
(
1 − e−ar ,
3

) Accordingly, E =
0r
30

and E  0 2
30 ar
1 a
32.
3 0

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