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Electricity

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17 Nov 2006 11:18:42 IST

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why electric field inside a conductor is always zero?

From Rajesh

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ruhi agrawal

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17 Nov 2006 11:44:51 IST

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charges never lie inside a conductor due to repulsion nd thus they spread out over the surface of a conductor. nd since there r no charges,electric field inside the conductor is always zero.

cvramana

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20 Nov 2006 22:29:20 IST

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Two Cases arise:

Case 1: When the conductor is not immersed in an External Electric Field and there is no current flow or rather under electrostatic conditions.

When there is no external electric field the total charge inside the conductor is zero. Hence there is no electric field inside the conductor. If we argue that there are electrons and protons, then we say that the lines of force start at positive charge and end at an equal amount of negative charge. Therefore the electric field exists inside an atom but not outside it. Since the positive and negative charge inside a conductor is equal, we conclude that the field inside a conductor is zero.

Case 2. When the conductor is immersed in an External Electric Field and there is no current flow or rather under electrostatic conditions.

When external electric lines fall on a conductor negative charges flow opposite to the lines of force and accumulate on one side of the conductor and positive charge accumulates on the opposite side of negative charges. These are called induced charges. These induced charges produce an electric field inside the conductor and opposite to the external electric field. The two fields being equal in magnitude and opposite cancel. Therefore the electric field inside a conductor is zero.

Amar Swamy

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28 Jun 2008 17:27:45 IST

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ghjghng

Aakanksha

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1 Jul 2008 13:50:21 IST

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its very esay...................there iz no charge inside a conductor.i.e q=0

as v know E= q/E0 where q=0 inside a conductor

therefore E=0 inside a conductor

AtuL SinhA

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1 Jul 2008 14:00:31 IST

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inside a conductor.... there are no charges
(they lie on the outer surface due to elctric field)

=>q=0

E=kq/r^2

E=0

C!-!!NMAY

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1 Jul 2008 14:20:29 IST

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i think inside a conductor there is no charge lies,,,coz of repulsion ,,,,they resides at the maximum distance which is surface of conductor....
hope i m correct..

Aakanksha

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2 Jul 2008 13:47:40 IST

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sooooo sorry i have given u wrong solution

srikrish

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2 Jul 2008 14:55:08 IST

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if there was some electric field inside a conductor, then there would be a force on the free electrons of the conductor and hence there will be some electric current generated, which is not possible under electrostatic conditions...

hence electric field inside a conductor is zero...

correct if i am wrong...

chicky

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3 Jul 2008 23:26:22 IST

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the main reason for field being 0 is
Metals hv plenty of free e which in presence of even a slight of electric field align themselves to the maximum possibility ie.
to d surface of metal which creates equal nd opp field
nd hnce d field is 0 inside a conductor!
this is not an assumption but a true fact,
hope this helps!!!

paris mulye

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24 Aug 2008 12:48:33 IST

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hey ruhi charge inside the conductor is zero doesnt imply that field is zero this will be correct iff it is isolated

Rizwan M

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6 Dec 2008 15:19:52 IST

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U see inside a conductor whether charge conductor or not charged or under external field net field inside conductor would be zero its not because of sum complicated crap its simply because in a conductor carges are free to move about so if they will try to occupy places such that potential energy of system is min which is when field in side is zero that is why charges of conductor lie on surface of conductor.even in exteranal field is they will move unevenly to have min potential energy such is the cause electrostatic shielding.that is why field inside insulator is not zero becoz charges r localised so there is no movement inside it.

TRY see simple solution rather that complicating it HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

physics is like *** u have to enjoy it

By RP feynman(not me)

krishna chaitanya

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21 Jan 2010 09:00:24 IST

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for example take a small part inside a conductor and assume a cylindrical gaussian surface around it hence we know tat the electric field =q/epsilon hence as we know that the net charge at any small part =0 other wise there would be a potential difference and we can accelarate charges for a free of cost as we were not able to do that hence q=0 hence electric field =0

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