Q.(i) State Gauss's law.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Gauss's law says total flux = enclosed charge / ε0; applying it to an infinite charged wire with a cylindrical surface gives E = λ/(2πε0 r); and applying it to a single point charge using Coulomb's law shows Gauss's law is a direct, more general consequence of Coulomb's inverse-square law.
(i) Gauss's law: The total electric flux through any closed surface (a 'Gaussian surface') equals times the total charge enclosed by that surface:
(ii) Field of an infinitely long, uniformly charged straight wire (linear charge density ):
By symmetry, the field at a perpendicular distance from the wire is radially outward (for positive ) and has the same magnitude at every point on a coaxial cylindrical surface of radius and length . Choose this cylinder as the Gaussian surface.
- Flux through the two flat end-caps is zero (E is parallel to them, perpendicular to their area vector).
- Flux through the curved surface: (E is everywhere perpendicular to, and constant in magnitude over, the curved surface).
Charge enclosed: .
By Gauss's law:
directed radially outward from the wire (for ).
(iii) Gauss's law from Coulomb's law: Consider a single point charge and a spherical Gaussian surface of radius centred on it. By Coulomb's law, the field at every point on this sphere has the same magnitude, , directed radially (parallel to the area vector everywhere). The flux is: …
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