How Does Gauss's Law Apply to Multiple Charged Sheets?

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Seraph404
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Homework Statement



Two very large, nonconducting plastic sheets, each 10.0 cm thick, carry uniform charge densities [tex]\sigma[/tex]1, [tex]\sigma[/tex]2, [tex]\sigma[/tex]3, & [tex]\sigma[/tex]4 on their surfaces, as shown in the figure .

Diagram of two thick green sheets side by side with surface charges labeled sigma 1 to sigma 4 and points A, B and C, widths 10 cm, 12 cm and 10 cm.


These surface charge densities have the values [tex]\sigma[/tex]1= -6.00E-6 C/m^2, [tex]\sigma[/tex]2= +5.00E-6 C/m^2,[tex]\sigma[/tex]3= +2.00E-6 C/m^2, and [tex]\sigma[/tex]4= +4.00E-6 C/m^2.

A) Use Gauss's law to find the magnitude of the electric field at the point A, 5.00 cm from the left face of the left-hand sheet.



Homework Equations



Gauss's Law


The Attempt at a Solution



Well, at first this confused me because I'm pretty sure I remember that in Gauss's law, electric field depends only on the enclosed charge. But this problem gives me a lot of distances. So I guess the formula

E = [tex]\sigma[/tex]/(2*[tex]\epsilon[/tex]0 )

doesn't work. That's what I tried, anyway, and got the wrong answer. So, how do I approach a problem like this?
 
Okay, I changed the problem.
 
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