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Why is the electric field zero inside a hollow conducting sphere?

Physics Asked by Tabish Mir on September 30, 2021

If you have a conducting hollow sphere with a uniform charge on its surface, then will the electric field at every point inside the shell be 0.

The reason the electric field is 0 at the center is clear from the symmetry of the sphere, but for a point at a certain distance from the center, shouldn’t a net electric field exist?

I saw a similar question on the site but it was vaguely explained.

2 Answers

If the shell and its charge distribution are spherically symmetric and static (which your question does imply when you say "uniform charge"), and if electric field lines begin and end on charges, then we know that any electric field that might be present inside the shell must be directed radially (in or out, i.e. $E_{theta} = E_{phi}=0$).

From there, a simple application of Gauss's law, using a spherical surface centered on the center of the shell tells you that the radial electric field component must also be zero at any radial coordinate $r$ within the sphere. $$ oint vec{E} cdot dvec{A} = frac{Q_{enclosed}}{epsilon_0} = 0$$ $$ 4pi r^2 E_r = 0$$ $$rightarrow E_r = 0 $$

Therefore, we can say that at any point within the sphere (defined by $r$ and two angular coordinates) that $E_r = E_{theta} = E_{phi}=0$ and so the total electric field at any point (inside the sphere) is zero, not just the centre.

Answered by ProfRob on September 30, 2021

if you consider an off-center point,the field created by the charges near to the point should be equal to the field created by other charges sitting opposite to it. Amount of charge and distance varies will prove this field or field strength is same. As they are opposite the net field is zero at any off-center point.

Answered by STA on September 30, 2021

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