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I have the integral shown below after working out the electric field at some point z above a hollow sphere with charge density per unit area of $\sigma$

$$\frac{\sigma}{4\pi\epsilon }\int_{\phi=0}^{\pi}\int_{\theta=0}^{2\pi}\int_{r=0}^{R}\frac{r^{2}\sin\phi dr d \theta d\phi }{\left [ z^{2}+r^{2}-2zr\cos\phi \right ]} - \frac{\sigma}{4\pi\epsilon }\int_{\phi=0}^{\pi}\int_{\theta=0}^{2\pi}\int_{r=0}^{R} \frac{r^{3}\sin\phi \cos\phi dr d \theta d\phi }{\left [ z^{2}+r^{2}-2zr\cos\phi \right ]}$$

But this integral proves to be exceeding hard to break down. Where do I start? Clear workings would be utmost helpful.

Harry Peter
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2 Answers2

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I'd like to start with the original problem statement and work from there, since there are a few small mistakes in that integral you've got up there. This is Problem 2.7 in Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics (Fourth Edition).

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Let $\mathbf{r}$ be the vector from any point on the sphere's surface to $P$ (because that script $\mathbf{r}$ that Griffiths uses is annoyingly hard to type in MathJax), and let $r$ be its length. Also, let $\alpha$ be the angle between $\mathbf{r}$ and the $z$-axis, and let $\phi$ be the azimuthal angle. Then, as in the figure, $\theta$ is the polar angle, $R$ is the radius of the sphere, and $z$ is the distance from the center of the sphere to $P$.

Since the surface of the sphere has a total charge $q$ distributed with a uniform density $\sigma$, each infinitesimal part $dA$ of the sphere's surface carries an infinitesimal piece of charge $dq=\sigma dA$. Expressing that in spherical coordinates, we have $dq=\sigma R^2 \sin\theta\ d\theta\ d\phi$.

We can see from the symmetry of the problem setup that any horizontal components of the electric field at $P$ will cancel out, so $\mathbf{E}=E_z\hat{\mathbf{z}}$, which simplifies things a bit -- we only need to find $E_z$.

Now, Coulomb's law tells us that the strength of the electric field generated by each infinitesimal piece of charge $dq$ is $$dE=\frac1{4\pi\epsilon_0}\frac{dq}{r^2}.$$

More specifically, in this case (at $P$), $$dE=dE_z=\frac1{4\pi\epsilon_0}\frac{dq}{r^2}\cos\alpha,$$ where we need the $\cos\alpha$ term to represent the contribution to the electric field at $P$ from all points other than the one directly between $P$ and the center of the sphere.

Since we have $dE_z$ at the moment, the logical thing to do is to integrate to find $E_z$, but we're going to need to re-express some terms first. $dq$ (as we've already seen), $r^2$, and $\cos\alpha$ can all be re-expressed in terms of combinations of variables over which we're going to integrate and constants.

By the law of cosines, $$r^2=R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta.$$

We can also re-express $\cos\alpha$ in a similar way: $$\begin{align} R^2&=r^2+z^2-2rz\cos\alpha \\ \cos\alpha&=\frac{R^2-r^2-z^2}{-2rz} \\ &=\frac{r^2+z^2-R^2}{2rz} \\ &=\frac{R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta+z^2-R^2}{2z\sqrt{R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta}} \\ &=\frac{2z(z-R\cos\theta)}{2z\sqrt{R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta}} \\ &=\frac{z-R\cos\theta}{\sqrt{R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta}} \end{align}$$

Pulling everything together, we have: $$\begin{align} dE_z&=\frac1{4\pi\epsilon_0}\frac{\sigma R^2 \sin\theta\ d\theta\ d\phi}{R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta}\frac{z-R\cos\theta}{\sqrt{R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta}} \\ &=\frac1{4\pi\epsilon_0}\frac{\sigma R^2 \sin\theta(z-R\cos\theta)}{(R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta)^{3/2}}d\theta\ d\phi \end{align}$$

Now we can integrate. Since $\theta$ is the polar angle, we have $0\le\theta\le\pi$, and since $\phi$ is the azimuthal angle, we have $0\le\phi\le2\pi$; note that the definitions of $\theta$ and $\phi$ I use are the opposite of those you used in your integral. Note also that since $dr$ never appeared in our earlier calculations, there's no need to integrate over $r$.

Rearranging a little bit, our integral emerges at last: $$E_z=\frac1{4\pi\epsilon_0}\sigma R^2\int_0^{2\pi}\int_0^{\pi}\frac{\sin\theta(z-R\cos\theta)}{(R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta)^{3/2}}d\theta\ d\phi$$

That's a mess. Let's see what we can do about that.


It's easy to integrate over $\phi$ first, since $\phi$ doesn't appear anywhere in the integrand; that simplifies the integral a little bit, to this: $$E_z=\frac1{2\epsilon_0}\sigma R^2\int_0^{\pi}\frac{\sin\theta(z-R\cos\theta)}{(R^2+z^2-2Rz\cos\theta)^{3/2}}d\theta$$

We can now make the substitution $u=z-R\cos\theta$, and once we do that, a few interesting things happen: $$\begin{align} du&=R\sin\theta\ d\theta \implies \frac1Rdu=\sin\theta\ d\theta \\ \theta&=0 \implies u=z-R\cos(0)=z-R \\ \theta&=\pi \implies u=z-R\cos(\pi)=z+R \\ u&=z-R\cos\theta \implies R\cos\theta=z-u \end{align}$$

Plugging all of that back into the integral, we have: $$\begin{align} E_z&=\frac1{2\epsilon_0}\sigma R^2\int_{z-R}^{z+R}\frac{\frac1Ru}{(R^2+z^2-2z(z-u))^{3/2}}du \\ &=\frac1{2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\int_{z-R}^{z+R}\frac{u}{(R^2+z^2-2z^2+2zu)^{3/2}}du \\ &=\frac1{2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\int_{z-R}^{z+R}\frac{u}{(R^2-z^2+2zu)^{3/2}}du \end{align}$$

Let's make another substitution now: $v=R^2-z^2+2zu$. This has similar effects to the last substitution: $$\begin{align} u&=\frac1{2z}(v-R^2+z^2) \\ dv&=2z\ du \implies \frac1{2z}dv=du \end{align}$$ $$\begin{align} u=z-R \implies v&=R^2-z^2+2z(z-R) \\ &=R^2-z^2+2z^2-2zR \\ &=R^2+z^2-2zR \\ &=(R-z)^2 \\ u=z+R \implies v&=R^2-z^2+2z(z+R) \\ &=R^2-z^2+2z^2+2zR \\ &=R^2+z^2+2zR \\ &=(R+z)^2 \end{align}$$

Our integral now looks like this: $$\begin{align} E_z&=\frac1{2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\int_{(R-z)^2}^{(R+z)^2}\frac{\frac1{2z}(v-R^2+z^2)}{v^{3/2}}\frac1{2z}dv \\ &=\frac1{8z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\int_{(R-z)^2}^{(R+z)^2}\frac{v-R^2+z^2}{v^{3/2}}dv \\ &=\frac1{8z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\int_{(R-z)^2}^{(R+z)^2}\left[v^{-1/2}-(R^2-z^2)v^{-3/2}\right]dv \end{align}$$

Much more manageable, right? At long last, we can evaluate it! $$\begin{align} E_z&=\frac1{8z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2v^{1/2}+2(R^2-z^2)v^{-1/2}\right]\Bigg|_{(R-z)^2}^{(R+z)^2} \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[v^{1/2}+(R^2-z^2)v^{-1/2}\right]\Bigg|_{(R-z)^2}^{(R+z)^2} \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[\sqrt{(R+z)^2}+\frac{R^2-z^2}{\sqrt{(R+z)^2}}-\sqrt{(R-z)^2}-\frac{R^2-z^2}{\sqrt{(R-z)^2}}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[R+z+\frac{R^2-z^2}{R+z}-\sqrt{(R-z)^2}-\frac{R^2-z^2}{\sqrt{(R-z)^2}}\right] \end{align}$$

I agree that it looks a little weird to leave the $(R-z)^2$ terms under the square roots, but remember the second part of the hint from the problem statement? That's going to come into play now. We have two distinct cases, where $z\lt R$ (in other words, where $P$ is inside the sphere), and where $z\gt R$ (where $P$ is outside the sphere). The value of $\sqrt{(R-z)^2}$ will be different in each case, since we always want to avoid taking the square root of a negative number.


If $P$ is inside the sphere $(z\lt R)$:

$$\begin{align} E_z&=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[R+z+\frac{R^2-z^2}{R+z}-\sqrt{(R-z)^2}-\frac{R^2-z^2}{\sqrt{(R-z)^2}}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[R+z+\frac{R^2-z^2}{R+z}-R+z-\frac{R^2-z^2}{R-z}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2z+\frac{(R^2-z^2)(R-z)-(R^2-z^2)(R+z)}{R^2-z^2}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2z+\frac{(R^2-z^2)(R-z-R-z)}{R^2-z^2}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2z-\frac{2z(R^2-z^2)}{R^2-z^2}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left(2z-2z\right) \\ &=0 \end{align}$$

If $P$ is outside the sphere $(z\gt R)$:

$$\begin{align} E_z&=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[R+z+\frac{R^2-z^2}{R+z}-\sqrt{(R-z)^2}-\frac{R^2-z^2}{\sqrt{(R-z)^2}}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[R+z+\frac{R^2-z^2}{R+z}-z+R-\frac{R^2-z^2}{z-R}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2R+\frac{(R^2-z^2)(z-R)-(R^2-z^2)(R+z)}{z^2-R^2}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2R+\frac{(R^2-z^2)(z-R-R-z)}{z^2-R^2}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2R-\frac{2R(R^2-z^2)}{z^2-R^2}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left[2R+\frac{2R(z^2-R^2)}{z^2-R^2}\right] \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left(2R+2R\right) \\ &=\frac1{4z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R\left(4R\right) \\ &=\frac1{z^2\epsilon_0}\sigma R^2 \\ &=\frac1{4\pi\epsilon_0}\frac{q}{z^2} \qquad\qquad (\text{since}\ q=4\pi R^2\sigma) \end{align}$$


And there you have it! $$\mathbf{E}= \begin{cases} \mathbf{0}, & z\lt R \\[1ex] \displaystyle{\frac1{4\pi\epsilon_0}\frac{q}{z^2}}\hat{\mathbf{z}}, & z\gt R \end{cases}$$

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The best way to do this is using symmetry and Gauss's theorem, rather than integration. The electric field is radially symmetric, and by Gauss's theorem its magnitude at distance $z$ from the centre depends only on the amount of charge at distances $< r$ from the centre. So the electric field outside the sphere is the same as if you put all that charge at the origin.

Robert Israel
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  • That is true. One can use Gauss's theorem to compute the Field in principle. But the question requires me to compute this without resort to Gauss's theorem... – Mathematicing Feb 17 '16 at 08:05
  • I've been trying for the past 2 hours with no results. Can you expound on what you mean by "all the charge at the origin"? – Mathematicing Feb 17 '16 at 10:30
  • Charge density $\sigma$ per unit area, area $4 \pi R^2$, so charge $4 \pi R^2 \sigma$. Same field as produced by a charge $4 \pi R^2 \sigma$ at the origin. – Robert Israel Feb 17 '16 at 16:29