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For more information, please see full course syllabus of AP Physics C/Electricity and Magnetism
For more information, please see full course syllabus of AP Physics C/Electricity and Magnetism
AP Physics C/Electricity and Magnetism Electric Field of a Continuous Charge Distribution
Lecture Description
Charge really comes in discrete chunks, but often it is mathematically convenient to treat a set of charges as if they were like a continuous fluid spread throughout a region of space. For example, a charged metal ball will have charge spread nearly uniformly all over its surface, and in for most purposes it will make sense to ignore the fact that this uniformity is broken at the atomic level. The electric field made by such a continuous charge distribution is the sum of the fields created by every part of it.Charge really comes in discrete chunks, but often it is mathematically convenient to treat a set of charges as if they were like a continuous fluid spread throughout a region of space.
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1 answer
Last reply by: Kyle Kosic
Mon Apr 4, 2011 8:42 PM
Post by Kyle Kosic on April 4, 2011
When he has 1/a^2 * sin(theta), couldn't he replace sin(theta) with x/a?
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Post by Daniel Brook on February 21, 2011
The Y-component aspect of the continuous charge distribution at the perpendicular bisector was really hard to understand. All of the trigonometry became really confusing. Either a different method of solving would have been nice or a more in-depth explanation of the problem could have helped.