Week 2: Continuous Charge and Gauss’s Law 99
Problem 9.
abc−Q 0+Q 0Consider three “thin” concentric conducting spherical shells with radiia < b < crespectively.
Initially all three shells are neutral. Then a negative charge−Q 0 is placed on the innermost sphere,
a matching positive charge +Q 0 is placed on the outermost sphere, and the arrangement allowed to
come to equilibrium.
a) Find the electric field everywhere and plot it. You will probably find this easier to do if you
let each shell have a small (relative toa) finite thickness as drawn above.b) Make a table showing the net charge on the inner and outer surfaces of each conducting shell.