Equilibrium probability distribution of a conductive sphere's floating charge in a collisionless, drifting Maxwellian...

Gauss's law states that the electric flux through any closed surface equals the net charge enclosed within the surface. This law is beneficial for determining the expressions for the electric field for a particular charge distribution if the electric flux is known.
Consider a non-uniformly charged sphere, for which the density of charge depends only on the distance from a point in space and not on the direction. Such a sphere has a spherically symmetrical charge distribution. Here, the electric...

The conduction of free electrons inside a conductor is best described by quantum mechanics. However, a classical model makes predictions close to the results of quantum mechanics. It is called the theory of metallic conduction.
In this theory, Newton's second law of motion is used to determine the acceleration of an electron in the presence of an applied electric field. Then, its velocity is expressed via this acceleration.
An electron moves through the crystal, containing positive ions,...

A charge distribution has spherical symmetry if the density of charge depends only on the distance from a point in space and not on the direction. In other words, if the system is rotated, it doesn't look different. For instance, if a sphere of radius R is uniformly charged with charge density ρ0, then the distribution has spherical symmetry. On the other hand, if a sphere of radius R is charged so that the top half of the sphere has a uniform charge density ρ1 and the bottom half has a uniform...

The simplest case of a surface charge distribution is the uniformly charged disk. Calculating its electric field also helps us calculate the electric field of a large plane of charge.
The system's symmetry is in the cylindrical directions across the plane of the charge. As a result, the electric fields created by various surface charge elements nullify each other in the direction parallel to the surface. Thereby, the resulting electric field is perpendicular to the plane. Since the disk is...

An interesting property of a conductor in static equilibrium is that extra charges on the conductor end up on its outer surface, regardless of where they originate. Consider a hollow metallic conductor with a uniform surface charge density. Since the conductor itself is in electrostatic equilibrium, there should not be any electric field inside the conductor. Now, assume a Gaussian surface enclosing the hollow portion. Applying Gauss's law, the inner surface of the hollow conductor will not...

Consider a polar dielectric placed in an external field. In such a dielectric, opposite charges on adjacent dipoles neutralize each other, such that the net charge within the dielectric is zero. When a polar dielectric is inserted in between the capacitor plates, an electric field is generated due to the presence of net charges near the edge of the dielectric and the metal plates interface. Since the external electrical field merely aligns the dipoles, the dielectric as a whole is neutral. An...