PHYSICS INVESTIGATORY

PROJECT

Name: Purvesh Salvi

Grade & div: XII A
Roll no.: 36
Nhp ID: NHPSASTD8563
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 CERTIFICATE

NEw HORIZON PUBLIC SCHOOL ,AIROLI

NAvI MUMBAI-400708

Examination No. Date:

Registration No. School Roll No.

This is to certify that_____________________________________

of grade XII Division A has satisfactorily completed his/her project
on__________________________________
in __________ and recorded it in the file during the academic year
2022-2023.

Internal Examiner Principal

External Examiner Seal of School

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 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my profound Gratitude to Mrs. Parvathi maam of

physics department. Special thanks to my parents and teachers who
helped me contribute more which gave me a boost for completion of my
project titled Electrostatic shielding.

I would like to thank my seniors for giving me insights in making

project and helping with presentation, and I am grateful for having
Parvathi maam as guide for the project.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge that this project was completed

entirely by me.

Signature:

Purvesh Salvi

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 INDEX

SR CONTENT PG
NO. NO.
1. Introduction 5
2. Electrostatics of conductor 6
3. Shielding 7
4. Applications 10
5. Conclusion 11
6. Bibliography 12

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 Introduction
Consider a conducting material having a enclosed cavity inside.
it is hollowed from inside in such a way that the material is at a
constant potential,
(Using a "segmented shield," one can demonstrate that electrostatic shielding
doesn't work when the potential is not constant.)

we observe a remarkable result that whatever the charge and

field configuration be there outside, the field inside the hollow
cavity will always be 0, This is called electrostatic shielding.

There are mainly 2 types of shielding.

1) Shielding inside from outside, when electrovalent field

exists outside &

2) Shielding outside from inside, when electric field

producing material needs to be insulated to avoid harm
to surrounding.

We are going to understand these basic forms and their

industrial uses. Also, the theoretical concept and principal
behind it.

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Electrostatics of conductor
When encountered with charges, the outer shell valence
electrons part away from the nucleus. This takes place in every
atom of material. we observe a cloud of electrons which move
and collide with each other directionless. The positive charge
remain attached to nucleus meanwhile electrons,
if provided with electric field, electrons move in field’s opposite
direction

Once with the conditions provided, we observe certain

characteristics depicted by conductor
i)Electrostatic field in conductor is 0

ii)at surface of conductor, the electrostatic conduction is

constant throughout any point on conductor

iii)excess charge always resides in surface of material only.

Gauss’s law
The total flux (Φ) of an electric field (E) through a closed
surface (S) to the net charge (q) enclosed by that surface. Let
the electric field E makes an angle θ with the positive normal to
the surface ΔS. Then, the quantity

ΔΦ = E ΔS cos θ is called the flux of the electric field through

the chosen surface. If we draw a vector of magnitude ΔS along
the positive normal, it is called the area vector, ΔS. Then ΔΦ
= E.ΔS
Total flux of S linked with a closed surface is (1/ε0) times the
algebraic sum of the charges enclosed by the closed surface,
Φ = ∮EdS =
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 Shielding
CASE 1: Shielding inside from outside, when electrovalent field
exists outside.
Assuming electrostatic equilibrium and shielding effect, one can
argue by contradiction that there cannot be an electric field
inside. Even though Gauss' law proves that it must be so, the
nuances prevent us from appreciating what's going on. When
electric potential across the conductor is constant, the shielding
effect arises from superposition of the field from the outside
charge distribution and the opposing "back-field" of the hollow
conductor. This is observable through following experiment.

Aim : To show no deflection of electrostatic needle inside a

shielded system to prove net charge E =0 inside the shield
Theory : if any charge is able to penetrate through the shield , it
will cause a deflection in needle ( which will point towards the
charge
procedure : 1]A cylindrical metal can (without top and bottom,
for viewing purposes) serves as the shield.
2]An electrostatic compass hanging in the middle of the
cylinder from a silk thread serves as the E-field detector.
3]First let the needle hang in open charged field. Without any
external aids

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4] Bring a magnetic field (or charged Teflon rod) near the
system
5]note the observations.
6] now in the system , place the metal can over the suspended
needle in center . note the observation.

Conclusion :- we observe that in first condition , when needle

was freely suspended , the needle changed it’s direction
according to charged field . we observe deflection prominently.

Once we add the metal can over the needle. we observe that
deflection stops, and needle moves freely to it’s original
position. Thus, the can with electric potential equal surface is
able to deflect incoming charges and provide electrostatic
shielding to needle.

Note: When a charged object is brought near the can, the

compass does not respond and will point in random directions.
This behavior is the same regardless of whether the metal
shield is grounded; the shield is an equipotential surface with or
without a ground.

Thus, by this experiment we can prove the E=0 effect

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CASE 2: Shielding outside from inside.
A charge inside a hollow conductor produces a charge
distribution on the outer surface of the conductor, and this
induced charge distribution creates an electric field outside the
closed conductor.
Thus, electrostatic shielding does not work both ways.
(Note that the field outside will depend on the shape of the
shield and not in any way reflect the internal charge
distribution.)
However, shielding the outside can be accomplished by
grounding the conductor. This allows charges to flow (from
ground) onto the conductor, producing an electric field
opposite to that of the charge inside the hollow conductor.
The conductor then acts like an electrostatic shield as a result
of the superposition of the two fields.

Other ways for shielding

Shielding with non-metallic enclosures. One can secure
electrostatic shielding effects even with insulating materials such
as paper and/or cardboard.
In time, surface charges will migrate and rearrange themselves
under the influence of outside charges. The superposition of
the fields due to the surface charges and the outside charges
leads to zero field inside a cardboard enclosure. the shielding
effect is essentially instantaneous, the time scale for cardboard
enclosures is in the 15 to 30 second range.

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 Applications
(i)In thunder strong accompany by lightening it is safest to sit
inside a car, rather than near a tree or open ground. The
metallic body of the car becomes an electrostatic
shielding from lightening.
(ii)Sensitive components of electronic devices protected or
shielded from external electric disturbances by placing metal
sheets around them
(iii)Electrostatic space radiation shielding
The goal is to repel enough positive charge ions so that they
miss the spacecraft without attracting thermal electrons.
(iv)Elevators in buildings operate as an electrostatic shield,
shielding cell phones, radio, and audio transmissions.

Notable developments
The Faraday cage is a type of enclosure designed to keep
external electric fields out of conductive materials. Faraday
shield is another name for it. Faraday's cage was invented by
Michael Faraday in the year 1800. He discovered that when he
charged the metal cage, which works as an electrical conductor,
the charges appeared just on the surface and had no effect on
the interiors.

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 Conclusion
conducting material having a enclosed cavity inside. it is
hollowed from inside in such a way that the material is at a
constant potential,

we observe a remarkable result that whatever the charge and

field configuration be there outside, the field inside the hollow
cavity will always be 0, This is called electrostatic shielding

2 types of shielding.

1) Shielding inside from outside, when electrovalent field

exists outside &

2) Shielding outside from inside, when electric field

producing material needs to be insulated to avoid harm
to surrounding.

Observation of experiment that showed us deflection stops and

needle moves freely to it’s original position. Thus the can with
electric potential equal surface is able to deflect incoming
charges and provide electrostatic shielding to needle.

There are many active applications of electrostatic shielding.

Faraday cage is also a important application of shielding incase

of strong electric discharge and protection from it.

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 Bibliography

What is Electrostatic Shielding: Applications, Faraday Cage & Sample

Questions (collegedunia.com)

Electrostatic Shielding | Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture

Demonstrations

Gauss's Law of Electrostatics in Physics Class 12 (pw.live)

Ncert textbook

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