1. 4. Electrostatics with Conductors
General statements about E(x) in or near a conductor
E is 0 inside the conducting material.
E is normal at the surface.
The surface charge density is  = 0En .
The conductor is an equipotential.
(Explain why each statement must be true.)
G L Pollack and D R Stump Electromagnetism

2. 4. Electrostatics with Conductors
The Method of Images
The image of a charge q in a planar conducting surface is a charge q = – q located at an equal distance on the opposite side of the surface.
The image of a charge q in a conducting sphere of radius a is a charge q= – qa/r located at the conjugate point, i.e., at radius r = a2/r.
(Explain why the image charge is not real but a useful fiction.)
G L Pollack and D R Stump Electromagnetism
Chapter 4

3. 4. Electrostatics with Conductors
In some simple, azimuthally symmetric problems involving a spherical conducting boundary, the potential in a charge-free region takes the form
where A, B, C, D are constants that will be determined by the boundary conditions. Then the electric field is
E = V .
(Section 4.3)
G L Pollack and D R Stump Electromagnetism