Q.State Gauss's law of electrostatistics. Find an expression for electric field due to infinitely long straight wire. OR Find an expression for the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor in presence of dielectric slab between its plates.
You're viewing a preview — the full solution, concept, methods & PYQ mapping are locked.
Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Gauss's law relates the flux through any closed surface to the enclosed charge; applying it with a cylindrical Gaussian surface around an infinite line charge gives . (OR alternative: inserting a dielectric slab between capacitor plates increases capacitance to .)
Part 1: Gauss's Law
Statement. The total electric flux through any closed surface (a "Gaussian surface") is equal to times the total charge enclosed by that surface:
This holds regardless of the surface's shape or where the charges are located inside it, and follows from Coulomb's law together with the inverse-square nature of the electric field.
Electric field due to an infinitely long straight charged wire
Setup. Consider an infinite straight wire with uniform linear charge density . By symmetry, the field at a perpendicular distance from the wire must point radially outward (for ) and have the same magnitude at every point on a cylinder of radius coaxial with the wire.
Choosing the Gaussian surface. Take a cylindrical Gaussian surface of radius and length , coaxial with the wire.
Applying Gauss's law. The flux through the two flat circular end-caps is zero (since is parallel to these surfaces, perpendicular to their area vectors). All the flux passes through the curved lateral surface, where is constant in magnitude and always parallel to :
Charge enclosed: .
By Gauss's law:
The field falls off as and points radially away from the wire (for positive ).
OR: Capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with a dielectric slab
Setup. A parallel plate capacitor has plate area , plate separation , and a dielectric slab of thickness () and dielectric constant inserted between the plates (with vacuum/air filling the remaining gap ).
…
Unlock everything free for 14 days
- Full step-by-step solutions
- Concept-first explanations
- Methods, shortcuts & mistakes
- PYQ mapping + timed mock tests
Full access for 14 days. No credit card required.