National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore

EE305 Electromagnetic Theory

Assignment 4, Issue Date: Wed, 9-Mar-2011
Read Instructions on Last Page

Solve all drills and end-of-chapter problems of Chapter 4 of Hayt and Buck for practice. Submit
the solution of the following problem set only. Partial credit will be awarded only if there is
enough evidence that you were progressing in the right direction in solving a problem. Therefore,
carefully explain your reasoning/steps.

Problem Set
1. A cube of side length a has a point charge q at each of its eight corners, as shown in Figure 1.

b b

b b

b b

b b

a
Figure 1: Cube with 8 Point Charges.

(a) Derive an expression for the electrostatic potential energy of this arrangement in terms
of a.
(b) If the point charge at one of the corners is set free, determine its velocity if its mass is
given by m.

2. A point charge of strength −8q is brought at the center of the arrangement shown in Figure 1.
What is the potential energy of the new arrangement?

3. The potential V due to a volume charge distribution is given by,

1 ρv (r′ )
˚
V (r) = dv ′
4πǫ0 |r − r′ |
V′

Apply the above definition to derive an expression for the potential V , at an arbitrary point
(r, θ, φ), due to a uniform spherical volume charge distribution of radius a.

4. The divergence of a vector field A is defined as follows,

‚
Sc
A · dS
div A = ∇ · A = lim
∆v→0 ∆v
Apply this definition to a differential volume element in cylindrical coordinate system and
show that,
1 ∂ 1 ∂Dφ ∂Dz
∇·D= (ρDρ ) + +
ρ ∂ρ ρ ∂φ ∂z
5. Consider two concentric metallic spheres centered at the origin. Both spheres are without
any net charge. The inner sphere of radius a is a solid one, and the outer sphere is a shell
of thickness t and inner radius b. Charge the inner sphere with a total charge +q. Find the
electric field intensity everywhere and the potential difference between the two spheres for
the following cases.

(a) The outer sphere is grounded.

(b) The outer sphere is not grounded.
(c) The outer sphere is at a potential V0 relative to ground.

6. A flat circular disk of radius a is placed in x = 0 plane with center at the origin. As shown
in Figure 2, the top half of the disk has a uniform surface charge density ρs and the bottom
half has −ρs . The top and the bottom halves are a distance δ away from each other, and
δ ≪ a.

P
z b

+ρs r
a
θ
δ y
φ

x −ρs
b

Figure 2: Disk with Surface Charge Densities +ρs and −ρs .

(a) Derive an expression for the potential V at an arbitrary point P which is very far away
from the disk.
(b) What is the dipole moment of the disk?

7. Derive an expression for the electrostatic energy of a uniform spherical charge distribution
of radius a and volume charge density ρv .

8. Consider two protons.

(a) What is the magnitude of the gravitational force of attraction between two protons
1 cm apart?
(b) What is the Coulomb’s force of repulsion between two protons 1 cm apart?
(c) At what distance apart the gravitational force of attraction between two protons would
be equal to the Coulomb’s force of repulsion between them?

9. An infinite sheet of charge having surface charge density ρs is located in z = 0 plane.

(a) Derive an expression for the work done in moving a unit positive charge from point
P1 (1, 1, 1) to point P2 (2, 2, 2) in the Cartesian coordinates, along the straight line join-
ing the two points.
(b) Derive an expression for the work done if the unit positive charge is moved from P1 to
P2 on the following straight lines:

(1, 1, 1) → (2, 2, 1) → (2, 2, 2)

(c) Repeat the previous part for the following straight lines from P1 to P2 :

(1, 1, 1) → (0, 0, 1) → (3, 3, 3) → (2, 2, 2)

You may use symbolic algebra package of your choice to solve the integrals if your Calculus
is rusty.
 National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore

EE305 Electromagnetic Theory

Assignment 4, Due Date: Mon, 21-Mar-2011, 12:50 pm.

Name: Roll Number: Section:

Do not write below this line. Do not write below this line. Do not write below this line. Do not write below this line.

Instructions

1. Assignment must be handed over to Irfan Iqbal or Azeem Hafeez before deadline.

2. Late submission will not be accepted.

3. Only submit your own work. Do not copy from others.

4. Submit assignment on A4 size paper.

5. A selected subset of problems will be graded.

6. Use blue or black ink only. Figures may be in color.

7. Handwriting must be legible. Your assignment may be returned un-graded otherwise.

Problem 1 2 3 4 5

Score

Problem 6 7 8 9 Total

Score

Comments

Attach this sheet to the front of submitted work.