Please provide a short justification for your answer! Monday Homework Problem 5.

Question

Please provide a short justification for your answer!

Monday Homework Problem 5.4 A conductor is placed in an electric field. What can be said about the electric field lines at the surface of the conductor? Select One of the Following (a) Any field line configuration is possible at a conductor's surface. (b) No field lines can intersect a conductor's surface c) Field lines must be tangent to the conductor's surface (d) Field lines must be perpendicular to the conductor's surface. (e) Field lines must make a 45° angle to the conductor's surface.

Explanation / Answer

Option (d) is correct. Because, In a conductor, free charges are present at the surface. If an external electric field is applied, the free charges will accumulate on the surfaces according to the direction of the electric field. These accumulation will lasts till the induced electric field inside the conductor is equal to the external field. Also, the induced field inside the conductor is in the opposite direction of the external field. As a result, the total field inside the conductor, that is the sum of external and induced field, will be zero. In other words, the electric field inside a conductor is always zero. If the external field lines had a tangential component other than normal component, it will drive the free charges on the surface of the conductor and that will result in complete system instability. This is not possible. Then the field lines must be normal to the conductor's surface.

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