Subtleties on the image method
Year: 2009
Type: preprint
Abstract: In this pedagogical work we point out a subtle mistake that can be done by undergraduate or graduate students in the computation of the electrostatic energy of a system containing charges and perfect conductors if they naively use the image method. Specifically, we show that the naive expressions for the electrostatic energy for these systems obtained directly from the image method are wrong by a factor 1/2. We start our discussion with well known examples, namely, point charge-perfectly conducting wall and point chargeperfectly conducting sphere and then proceed to the demonstration of a general result, valid for conductors of arbitrary shapes.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Márcio M. Taddei, T. N. C. Mendes, C. Farina
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2970583003