The solution at revision #19196 of , by jzmicer. This is not the current version.

Statement

6.5.6. Find the electric pressure on the inner surface of a spherical capacitor charged to a potential difference . The radius of the outer plate of the capacitor is , and the radius of the inner one is .

Solution

First, we prove the well‑known formula for the field pressure, which will be convenient to use in other problems:

For a conductor in vacuum, the field near its surface is related to the surface charge density by:

This is easily obtained from Gauss's theorem, remembering that inside the conductor the field is zero.

Immediately near the surface, an area element behaves like an infinite plane. Such a plane creates its own field of on each side. Then the external field is

From this we finally get:

In problem 6.4.5 the capacitance of a spherical capacitor is found:

Accordingly, the charge on each sphere is

The field near the inner sphere is


Answer