Electrostatics of conductors

1. Aug 12, 2014

tecnics

the interior of a closed conductor can have no excess charges in the static situation ...and even if they have excess charge ...then these charge resides on the surface of the conductor...not inside it...

can anyone explain to me...y a closed conductor behaves so?

wht connection does it have with gauss law for electrostatics?

the conductor can be either..a hollow or solid cylinder or ...even a solid wire..

2. Aug 12, 2014

Orodruin

Staff Emeritus
If there was an electric field inside the conductor, then there would be a net current and hence redistribution of charge. This tells us that there can be no electric field inside the conductor in the static situation. Gauss law relates the integral of the field over a surface to the charge enclosed by the surface. If we pick any surface within the conductor, the integral is going to be zero since the field is. Thus, there can be no net charge enclosed by the surface. Since this is true for any closed surface in the conductor, the charge density must be zero everywhere.