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hitemup
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Homework Statement
The Earth possesses an electric field of (average) magnitude 150 N/C near its surface. The field points radially inward. Calculate the net electric flux outward through a spherical surface surrounding, and just beyond, the Earth's surface.
Homework Equations
Flux = EAcos(theta)
The Attempt at a Solution
I know that flux is proportional to the number of lines passing through a surface. Thus, we only need to calculate the the flux with respect to earth.
What confuses me is that, is there any net flux outward? Since the field lines point inward, and infinitesimally small surface vectors point outward, the sign of the flux will be negative. If the flux is negative, then there is a net flux into the volume. So I don't know if the answer is zero or simply (+-?)150*(4*pi*r^2), where r is the radius of the Earth.