Freshmen physics textbooks use Gauss\'s law plus symmetry to calculate the elect

Question

Freshmen physics textbooks use Gauss's law plus symmetry to calculate the electric field. I was wondering if this method of finding the electric field using a symmetry is used in real applications in life, science, research, or technology. For example do researchers use symmetry to find the electric field due to a charged virus that is spherically symmetric, or a charged DNA that has some kind of symmetry or charged symmetrical objects in nanotechnology. I am looking for such specific applications.

Explanation / Answer

do researchers use symmetry to find the electric field due to a charged virus that is spherically symmetric?

The answer is no. Why they need to reinvent the wheel? They just use the known formula that exists for such situations that can be proved using Gauss Laws (though they all can be proved without using Gauss laws)

Similar answer can be given to your other question. Though note that since sizes are of atomic level, other forces can come into play.

Theoretically we don't need Gauss law. Only law we need in electrostatics is Coulomb's law to find E? and F? =mE? . Gauss Laws and all other tools only help to simplify the calculations. So there is no application of Gauss Law per se but I think you must appreciate the power of Gauss Laws in simplification of many tough situations,many of which have profound practical applications. However theoretically all situations can be solved without using Gauss Laws or symmetry arguments.

Though I recommend checking out Faraday_cage a really outstanding application of electrostatics and its working can be explained using Gauss' Laws along with properties of conductors.

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