Radial flow of charge across cylinder?

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the charge flow between two concentric cylinders, where the outer cylinder is hollow and the inner cylinder is solid, with a high-resistivity material filling the space between them. When a voltage V is applied, the positive terminal connects to the outer cylinder and the negative terminal to the inner cylinder, resulting in a charge flow from the inner to the outer cylinder through the resistive medium. Gauss' Law is referenced for calculating the electric field, but the participant expresses uncertainty about its applicability due to the resistive nature of the medium.

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  • Understanding of Gauss' Law in electrostatics
  • Knowledge of electric fields and potential difference
  • Familiarity with resistivity and its impact on charge flow
  • Concept of concentric cylinders in electrostatics
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collectedsoul
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Hi

Please help me understand how charge flows in this case:

There are 2 concentric cylinders, the outer one is hollow but the inner one is solid. The space between them is filled with a material of high resistivity. Now an electric circuit with voltage V is connected to the cylinder's faces. +ve end of the circuit goes into the outer cylinder and -ve end to the inner cylinder. The cylinders themselves have negligible resistance. What will happen in terms of charge flow here?
 
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Is there any symmetry? Use Gauss law to calculate the electric field.
 
I tried using Gauss' Law, but I think there is charge flow from inner to outer cylinder through the resistive medium and Gauss' Law won't work in that case.

I am only given the voltage V of the battery, the resistivity of the in-between material \rho, the inner radius r1, outer radius r2, and the length L of the 2 cylinders.
 

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