- #1
oneplusone
- 127
- 2
When doing problems such as finding the electric field of an object, my book often makes substations like: ## dq = \lambda dr = \lambda d\theta\cdot r## (this is in reference to finding the electric field at the center of a rod shaped in a semicircle). See attached for full solution to this.
My question is, how can you let ##\theta## be the angle from the vertical and still make the ## s = r\theta## substitution?? Wouldn't that give you the length of the semicircle starting from the top, to the angle where you direct it to?
Rephrasing: Wouldn't theta change with every element dx?
My question is, how can you let ##\theta## be the angle from the vertical and still make the ## s = r\theta## substitution?? Wouldn't that give you the length of the semicircle starting from the top, to the angle where you direct it to?
Rephrasing: Wouldn't theta change with every element dx?