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May 19 2013 11:18pm
I am studying for my final, and I can't find the right answer to a test I took earlier

SO there is a slab of material that is insulated:

---------------------
l.........................l
l.........................l
l.........................l
l.........................l
l.........................l
l.........................l
l--------------------
<------ d -------->
There is an axis that goes right through the middle.. so its x, y, and z. Its infinitely long on the y and z axis. It has a non-uniform density of p=Cx^6.

I need to find the electric field in the interior (x < d/2)

the exterior (x > d/2)

and plot a field vs x graph.

Thanks in advance!

This post was edited by killedbyz on May 19 2013 11:19pm
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May 20 2013 11:01am
First of all, due to the geometry of the slab, you can write that the electric field E vector is directed by the x axis, and depends only on x. You can write : E = E(x)*ux, with ux being the elementary vector of the x axis.

This being said, let x0 be some real such that |x0| < d/2 (inside the slab). The Gauss theorem applied on a slab such that : 2*x0 is the width, h is the height, l is the length (both h and l are arbitrary, you dont' need a value as explained below) provides :

E(x0)*l*h + E(-x0)*l*h = Q/e0, Q being the total electric charge contained by the slab, and e0 being the vaccum permittivity.

Q is the integral over the slab of the density p which is equal to :

Q = 2*l*h*1/7*x0^7

Finally : E(x0) = x0^7/(7*e0)

Outside the slab, the field is constant equal to :

E(x) = (d/2)^7/(7*e0)


Might be wrong / unclear.
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