Gauss' Law: Enclosed Cylinder in a Hollow Shell

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on applying Gauss' Law to a non-conducting cylinder with a charge density of p = 4.73 * r C/m^4 and a hollow metallic cylindrical shell. The electric field at a distance of 0.172m from the central axis is derived using the equation (a*r^3)/(3*R*ε0), but the user struggles with the correct application of R since the point is outside the shell. For the surface charge density inside the hollow cylinder, the user contemplates using E = σ/ε0 but is uncertain about the electric field value to use, indicating confusion regarding the relationship between the charge density and the electric field.

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  • Understanding of Gauss' Law and its applications
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  • Knowledge of cylindrical coordinates in electrostatics
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  • Study the relationship between surface charge density and electric field strength
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A long non-conducting cylinder has a charge density p = a*r, where a = 4.73 C/m^4 and r is in meters, and a radius of 0.0437m . Concentric around it is a hollow metallic cylindrical shell with an inner radius of 0.119m and an outer radius of 0.158m.

1) What is the electric field at 0.172m from the central axis? Answer in units of N/C.
2) What is the surface charge density inside the hollow cylinder? Answer in units of C/m2.

For part 1 I've already solved a few equations for charges at various radiuses along the inside of the cylinder, between the cylinder and the shell, etc, and I have the equation of (a*r^3)/(3*R*ε0), but I know this won't work because the radius is now outside the shell. I know the shell has no net charge, conceptually, so the charge outside is negative... but I'm still not sure what my R is for this equation.

For the second part I'm almost totally lost. The E = (/sigma)/ε0) doesn't make sense to me unless I'm supposed to get E for the radius JUST inside of the shell and use that.
 
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I'm thinking you're right about the second part, so all you technically need is the electric field. To make things simpler, you could convert the volume charge density to a linear charge density. The metallic shell doesn't devote to the electric field outside of it, so you could rely on the derived equation for outside the shell and near the inner surface of the shell.
 
Well I tried the second part by using (a*r^3)/(3*R*ε0), where r = 0.0437 and R = 0.119 to get E. Then I multiplied by ε0 again to get the (surface charge density) but I got 0.011056 which was wrong. So I guess I'm more lost than I thought.
 

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