The Student Room Group
Reply 1
The Professor
Two infinite conducting plane sheets meet at an angle of 60 degrees. A particle carrying a charge q is constrained to move on the plane bisecting this angle. Obtain an expression for the force on the particle when it is a distance x from the line on which the sheets meet.

Can anyone do this?


Becuase the planes are conductors the charge will cause a redistribution of the charges in the conducting sheets. So, the charge will be atracted to the sheets. I sugest you work out what this atraction is for a charge, q, a distance r from a sheet and then use the principle of superposition to work out the net force (technically you should need information regarding whether current is allowed to flow between the sheets or not, but I assume that is of neglectable importance.)
Reply 2
The Professor
Two infinite conducting plane sheets meet at an angle of 60 degrees. A particle carrying a charge q is constrained to move on the plane bisecting this angle. Obtain an expression for the force on the particle when it is a distance x from the line on which the sheets meet.

Can anyone do this?


It will probably help greatly to know that the electric field at all points within a conductor must be zero. Thus the electric field at any point at the sheet must equal zero. This can only be the case if the field due to the induced redistribution of charges exactly outweighs the electric field due to the charge. itself.