Example 22.

6: Field of a line of charge

Electric charge is distributed uniformly along an infinitely long, thin wire. The charge per unit
length is λ (assumed positive). Find the electric field. (This is an approximate representation
of the field of a uniformly charged finite wire, provided that the distance from the field point
to the wire is much less than the length of the wire – compare with Example 21.11.)

Solution
We will use Gauss’s law to find the electric field of an infinitely long charged wire. The field must point
away from the positive charges and the system has cylindrical symmetry. Figure 1 illustrates geometry of
the problem:

E
Gaussian E =E dA
surface charged
E wire
E

r
E =0
E =0
l

Fig. 1. Calculating the electric field of an infinitely long line of charge. A coaxial cylindrical
Gaussian surface with radius r and length l is used to find the field.

Cylindrical symmetry means we can rotate the system by any angle about its axis that coincides with the
 at any
charged wire or shift it by any amount along this axis without changing the value of the electric field E
point around the wire. Thus, cylindrical symmetry requires that the electric field has to be directed radially
outward from the wire at each point. These symmetry properties suggest that we should apply Gauss’s law
to a cylindric Gaussian surface with arbitrary radius r and arbitrary length l whose bases are perpendicular
to the wire and whose axis coincides with the wire (see Fig. 1).
Gauss’s law
Qencl
ΦE =
0
requires calculating the total electric flux ΦE through the surface of the cylinder:
 
ΦE =  
E · dA = E⊥ dA
cylinder cylinder

where E⊥ is the component of the electric field perpendicular to surface element dA (see Fig. 1). Let us
divide the above integral for ΦE into three integrals over the left and right bases of the cylinder and the
cylinder side walls:
   
ΦE = E⊥ dA = E⊥ dA + E⊥ dA + E⊥ dA
cylinder left base right base side walls

1
As illustrated by Fig. 1, there is no flux through the left and right bases of the cylinder because the electric
field E is radial and, consequently, E⊥ = 0 at both bases. Thus, the total electric flux must be equal to the
flux through the cylinder side walls.
In order to find the flux through the side walls, 
  we note that the electric field E is perpendicular to the

side wall surface at each point so that E⊥ = E  = E and it points out of the surface. By symmetry, E has
the same value everywhere on the walls. The total flux ΦE then becomes
  
ΦE = E⊥ dA = EdA = E dA
side walls side walls side walls

The last integral side walls
dA is equal to the total area of the side walls 2πrl and, thus,

ΦE = (E)(2πrl). (1)

In order to apply Gauss’s law, we need to know the total charge Qencl enclosed by the cylindric Gaussian
surface with radius r and length l. In our case of a charged wire with the uniform charge per unit length λ

Qencl = λl. (2)

Combining Eqs. (1) and (2) then gives

λl
ΦE = (E)(2πrl) =
0
and, consequently,
1 λ
E= . (3)
2π0 r
This is the same result that we obtained in Example 21.11 for the electric field of a finite charged wire in the
limit of wire length 2a being much greater than the distance r from the wire to the field point. We see that
using Gauss’s law and the symmetry of the problem significantly simplified the calculation. Equation (3)
holds for any value of λ; for λ > 0, the electric field is directed radially outward from the wire (positive
radial direction) and for λ < 0, the electric field points radially towards the wire (negative radial direction).

Note
Even though the electric field outside of an infinitely long charged wire is caused by the total charge of the
wire, we only used the part of the total charge enclosed within the cylindric Gaussian surface to calculate the
field. However, this does not mean that we ignored the part of the charge localized outside of the Gaussian
surface. The fact that the charged wire is infinitely long was used in our symmetry considerations of the
problem that required the electric field to be radial at any point around the wire. If we instead considered a
wire of finite length, the electric field close to the ends of the wire would not be radial anymore and we could
not use Gauss’s law in its simple, symmetric form! In this situation, the electric field has to be calculated
using procedures described in Example 21.11.