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Semicircle

The document summarizes the calculation of the electric field in the center of a semicircle of charge. It first expresses the total charge as a linear charge density and infinitesimal charge elements. It then calculates the electric field from each element and integrates over the semicircle to find the total field. The final expression for the electric field in the center is E=Q/(2πε0a2), where Q is the total charge and a is the radius.

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Rajen_Dutta_6574
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48 views2 pages

Semicircle

The document summarizes the calculation of the electric field in the center of a semicircle of charge. It first expresses the total charge as a linear charge density and infinitesimal charge elements. It then calculates the electric field from each element and integrates over the semicircle to find the total field. The final expression for the electric field in the center is E=Q/(2πε0a2), where Q is the total charge and a is the radius.

Uploaded by

Rajen_Dutta_6574
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The field due to a semicircle of charge

dq
Out[45]=

a
We want to find the field in the center of the arc due to this radial charge distribution with a total charge of Q. As with all the other continuous charge distributions, we first start by chopping the distribution into infinitesimal elements and imagining each as a point charge. We know the electric field due to a point charge is (1) E
q 1 4 0 r2

therefore the small field dE due to our charge dq is (2) dE


1 dq 4 0 r2

Just how much charge is in dq? We can use what we know to create a linear charge density (3)
total charge total length Q a

where the quantity a is the length of our arc (half the circumference). If we go further to say that each chunk dq has a length ds, then we can express dq as (4) dq ds

Finally, we notice from drawing a number of field vectors that we expect the symmetry of the shape to lead to a net electric field in the x-direction of Ex 0. If we substitute the previous relation (4) into our field expression (2) and then multiply by sin to isolate the y-component of the field, we get (5) dE
1 ds 4 0 r2

sin r d, and in our case we have a constant r a, so ds a d. Then

When we jaunt over to polar coordinates, ds (6) dE


1 a d sin 4 0 a2 1 d sin 4 0 a

Then we integrate dE E
1 sin d 4 0 a 0 1 4 0 a

and substituting (3) back in:

Then we integrate 2 semicircle.nb dE E


1 sin d 4 0 a 0 1 4 0 a

and substituting (3) back in: E


1 Q

2 2 0 a2

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