EMLR Course: Monsoon Semester

Assignment 2

Total Marks: 60
th
Deadline: 5 October 2023 (Thursday) during DS
No request to extend the deadline will be entertained

September 25, 2023

1. (a) Find the potential inside and outside a uniformly charged solid sphere whose radius
is R and whose total charge is q. [3+2]
(b) Find the energy stored in such a uniformly charged solid sphere. [5]
(c) There is another way of computing the energy of a uniformly charged solid sphere:
Assemble it like a snow ball, layer by layer, each time bringing an infinitesimal
charge dq from far away and smearing it over the surface, thereby increasing the
radius. How much work dW does it take to build up the radius by an amount dr?
Integrate this to find the work necessary to create the entire sphere of radius R and
total charge q. Check your answer with whatever you got in the previous part of
this question. [5]
2. A metal sphere of radius R carries a total charge Q. What is the force of repulsion
between the “northern” hemisphere and the “southern” hemisphere? [10]
3. In a vacuum diode, electrons are “boiled” off a hot cathode, at potential zero, and ac-
celerated across a gap to the anode, which is held at a positive potential V0 . The cloud
of moving electrons within the gap (called space charge) quickly builds up to the point
where it reduces the field at the surface of the cathode to zero. From then on, a steady
current I flows between the plates.
Suppose the plates are large relative to the separation (A  d in Fig 1), so that edge
effects can be neglected. Then V , ρ and v (the speed of the electron) are all functions of
x alone.
(a) Write Poisson’s equation for the region between the plates. [1]
(b) Assuming the electrons start from rest at the cathode, what is their speed at the
point x, where the potential is V (x)? [2]
(c) In the steady state, I is independent of x. What, then, is the relation between ρ and
v? [2]
(d) Use these three results to obtain a differential equation for V , by eliminating ρ and
v. [2]

1
 (e) Solve this equation for V as a function of x, V0 and d. Plot V (x), and compare it to
the potential without space-charge. Also, find ρ and v as functions of x. [4+1+2+1+1]
3/2
(f) Show that I = KV0 (Child-Langmuir Law), and find the constant K. [2+2]

Figure 1: Diode

4. Find the potential outside a charged metal sphere (charge Q, radius R) placed in an
otherwise uniform electric field E = E0 ẑ. Explain clearly where you are setting the zero
of the potential. [10]
5. A circular ring in the xy plane (radius R, centred at the origin) carries a uniform line
charge λ. Find the first three terms (n = 0, 1, 2) in the multipole expansion for V (r, θ). [10]

2/2