Need suggestion on an MIT OCW material

1. Mar 14, 2016

kamaljit

Hi i would be glad if someone can help me on this.
I am having a bit of trouble in understanding why the upper limit of integration over "r" is infinity in the MIT open course material on Electric field page #16 by Prof Markus Zahn (material attached as a link to the pdf). Please help.

http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-002-electromagnetic-field-theory-a-probl%20em-solving-approach-spring-2008/textbook-contents/chapter2.pdf [Broken]

Last edited by a moderator: May 7, 2017
2. Mar 14, 2016

Incand

Almost impossible to know what you mean when the link doesn't work and page 16 doesn't have any integral in it at all.

I'm guessing you perhaps meant page page 63 where he integrate to get the total charge? In that case the charge distribution extends to infinity (in all directions) so to get the total charge you need to integrate over the entire volume (i.e. infinity).

3. Mar 14, 2016

kamaljit

Thank you for your quick reply and sorry that 1. the link isnt working (i copied the link correctly but somehow it is not working) and 2. about posting in the wrong section...

4. Mar 14, 2016

Incand

You got a space in "pro blem" in your link. This should be the correct one
http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-002-electromagnetic-field-theory-a-problem-solving-approach-spring-2008/textbook-contents/chapter2.pdf [Broken]
I didn't spot it either at first but I found the course on ocw site.

Last edited by a moderator: May 7, 2017
5. Mar 14, 2016

kamaljit

thank you for this correction.

6. Mar 14, 2016

Staff: Mentor

I've moved it. Cheers!