METHOD OF IMAGES - POINT CHARGE AND SPHERE

Link to: physicspages home page.

To leave a comment or report an error, please use the auxiliary blog and
include the title or URL of this post in your comment.
Post date: 25 May 2021.
A special case in which the method of images works is that of a point
charge and a grounded, conducting sphere. We’ll take the sphere with its
centre at the origin and give it a radius R. The point charge q is on the z axis
at location z = a, where a > R (so it’s outside the sphere). Now we know
that the potential everywhere on the sphere is zero (since it’s a grounded
conductor), so as the point charge is brought in, charge moves around on
the conductor to keep the potential at that value. The problem is to find the
potential everywhere outside the sphere.
Someone at some point noticed that if you replace the sphere by an image
charge of q 0 = −Rq/a at a location of z = R2 /a (since a > R this puts the
image charge inside the sphere), then the potential on the sphere is still
zero. This is most easily seen if we write the potential due to the two point
charges in spherical coordinates. At a location r the potential due to the
original charge is
1 q
Vq = √ (1)
4π0 r2 + a2 − 2ar cos θ
where we’ve used the cosine rule to get the distance from q to the point r.
The angle θ is, as usual, the angle between the z axis and the vector r.
By the same argument, the potential due to q 0 is

1 q0
Vq 0 = q (2)
4π0 2
r2 + (R2 /a) − 2r (R2 /a) cos θ
1 q
=− q (3)
4π0
(ar/R)2 + R2 − 2ra cos θ
If we look at the surface of the sphere, then r = R and we get Vq = −Vq0
so the total potential on the surface of the sphere is zero. As you might
expect, this is a very special case, and it’s highly unusual to find problems
in which the method of images works this well.
However, having found the image charge, the net potential is just the sum
of the two above, so we get
1
 METHOD OF IMAGES - POINT CHARGE AND SPHERE 2

 
q  1 1
V (r) = √ −q  (4)
4π0 r2 + a2 − 2ar cos θ 2
(ar/R) + R2 − 2ra cos θ

From here, we can work out the induced surface charge on the sphere.
For a conductor, we have for the surface charge density σ:

∂V
σ = −0 (5)
∂n
That is, we need the derivative of the potential normal to the surface. In this
case, the normal direction is in the direction of increasing r, so we just take
the derivative with respect to r. This gives

 
q  r − a cos θ ra2 /R2 − a cos θ
σ= −

4π (r2 + a2 − 2ra cos θ)3/2  3/2 

(ar/R)2 + R2 − 2ra cos θ
r=R
(6)
q a2 − R 2
=− (7)
4π R (R2 + a2 − 2Ra cos θ)3/2

The induced charge is negative, since q itself is positive. We can find the
total induced charge on the sphere by integrating σ over the surface area.

a2 − R2 R2 sin θ
Z π

2πq
qi = − 3/2
dθ (8)
4π 0 R (R2 + a2 − 2Ra cos θ)
qR
=− (9)
a

That is, the total induced charge is equal to the point image charge.
Finally, we can work out the energy of the configuration. The easiest way
to do that is to recognize that the electric field and thus the force outside
the sphere are the same in both configurations of the problem (the original
one with the grounded sphere, and the image version with the two point
charges). For a point charge at location zq (= a) and image charge at loca-
tion z = R2 /a the force between the charges is
 METHOD OF IMAGES - POINT CHARGE AND SPHERE 3

qq 0 1
F= (10)
4π0 (zq − R2 /zq )2
q2 R
=− (11)
4π0 zq (zq − R2 /zq )2
q2R zq
=− (12)
4π0 z 2 − R2 2


q
The energy is the work done in bringing the charge q from infinity up to
location zq = a. Thus we need to integrate F · dl over a path between these
two points. The easiest path to take is along the z axis. We get (again, we
take the negative of the force between the charges since we’re opposing this
force in doing the work):

q2R
Z a
zq
W=
2 dzq (13)
4π0 ∞ zq2 − R2
q2R
=− (14)
8π0 (a2 − R2 )
P INGBACKS
Pingback: Method of images - sphere in uniform field