Calculating Electric Field in Water-Filled Container: What is the Best Method?

[LuGoBi]

This is killing me. I have an electrical charge in the air and below it I have a container filled with water. How do I calculate the electric field generated by the charge on the bottom of the cointainer? Bear in mind the electrostatic constant in water is different than from air.

 

[pam]

Assuming the surface of the water is like an infinite plane, this is a standard image problem treated in most textbooks.

 

[LuGoBi]

Assuming the surface of the water is like an infinite plane, this is a standard image problem treated in most textbooks.

Could you ellaborate, then?

 

[pam]

I can't go through the whole method of images.
You may have to look at a book.

 

[malawi_glenn]

smells like homework?

 

[cmos]

Excuses me, pam (or others), but doesn't the method of images require that the boundary region be a (grounded) perfect conductor?

Treating the problem in a brute-force manner (Gauss' Law, Cartesian coordinates), this doesn't sound TOO bad. You just need to invoke some pretty clever trigonometry to account for the surface of the water.