Statement
6.5.7. What charge can be placed per unit length of a long cylindrical shell of radius
Solution
Essentially, we need to find the charge at which the electric field pressure becomes equal to
The surface charge density is
where
Near the surface of the cylinder, the field is
This is trivially derived from Gauss's theorem.
In the previous problem, the formula for the field pressure was proved (it is, incidentally, equal to the energy density of the field):