8.3.B—Describe the electric field generated by charged conductors or insulators

Describe the electric field generated by charged conductors or insulators.

• While in electrostatic equilibrium, the excess charge of a conductor is distributed on the surface of the conductor, and the electric field within the conductor is zero.
  • i. At the surface of a charged conductor, the electric field is perpendicular to the surface.
  • ii. The electric field outside an isolated sphere with spherically symmetric charge distribution is the same as the electric field due to a point charge with the same net charge as the sphere located at the center of the sphere.
• While in electrostatic equilibrium, the excess charge of an insulator is distributed throughout the interior of the insulator as well as at the surface, and the electric field within the insulator may have a nonzero value. 32 Electric Charges, Fields, and Gauss’s Law UNIT 8 TOPIC 8.4 Electric Fields of Charge Distributions