Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each Gaussian surface by the symmetry it exploits.
Groups: Spherical · Cylindrical · Planar (pillbox)
- Infinite line charge
- Point charge or spherical shell
- Infinite plane of charge
- Long charged wire
- Parallel plate capacitor (between plates)
- Uniformly charged sphere
Hints
- Pick the surface on which the field magnitude stays constant.
- A long straight distribution calls for a different surface than a compact one.
Show the answer
Spherical: Point charge or spherical shell, Uniformly charged sphere
Cylindrical: Infinite line charge, Long charged wire
Planar (pillbox): Infinite plane of charge, Parallel plate capacitor (between plates)
Why
Choose a Gaussian surface that matches the symmetry of the charge distribution.
Practise Electric Field and Gauss's Law
The app has 10 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Physics I is free to start.
More questions on Electric Field and Gauss's Law
- A balloon is charged and its charge stays fixed. If you double the radius of an imaginary sphere drawn around…
- Gauss’s law holds for any closed surface, but it only helps compute a field when the surface is chosen well.…
- Order the steps for using Gauss’s law to find the field of an infinite charged line.