Potential inside sphere with empty cavity

AI Thread Summary
An insulating sphere with uniform charge density has a spherical cavity cut out, and the task is to find the electric field and potential at specific points. The volume charge distribution is calculated by subtracting the cavity's volume from the total sphere's volume. To determine the electric field at point B, Gauss' law is considered, but the non-isotropic nature of the field complicates the setup. The discussion suggests treating the problem as one sphere minus another to find the fields and potentials for each. The focus remains on deriving algebraic solutions for the electric field and potential outside the larger sphere.
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Homework Statement


An insulating sphere of radius R , centered at point A, has uniform chagre density ρ. A spherical cavity of radius R / 2 , centered at point C, is then cut out and left empty, see Fig.

(a) Find magnitude and direction of the electric field at points A and B.

(b) Find the potential at points A and B. Set V(r → ∞) = 0.

(c) Write down an algebraic solution (no integrals!) for E(r) and V (r) for the space outside the larger sphere, r > R. Choose r = 0 at point A, and the radius vector of point C as r = RC .

(question1) in the uploaded file


The Attempt at a Solution


(a)First I want to figure out the volume charge distribution, which I wanted to do by finding the the volume of the whole sphere minus the volume of the cavity.
\int_V \rho \cdot dVolume = \frac{4}{3}\pi \rho (R^3-\frac{R^3}{8})=\frac{7}{6}\pi R^3 \rho

Then to get E_B I wanted to use Gauss' law, but I am not sure how i would set that up because the E field isn't isotropic, so instead I am trying to use the equation for E-field of a volume charge distribution:
E(r)=k\int \frac{dq \hat{s}}{s^2}
Where i just calculated dq. s^2=R, but I am not sure what \hat{s} is
 

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thinking about it though, I am pretty sure that what i got for dq is wrong, because i don't think what i did takes into account that the cavity isn't centered at the origin
 
Treat it as one sphere minus another. Find the fields and potentials for each sphere and take the difference.
 
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