Rings and Disks: finding the electric field of a continuous charge distribution

1. Find the field a distance x along the axis of a charged ring of radius R, charge q.

Taking an element dq of length dl of the ring, we get a field dE at a distance r from the element. From
Coulombs law, this field
2 2 2
kdq kdq
dE
r R x
= =
+
. When we consider the fields of all the elements of the
ring added (as vectors!) together, its obvious that only the x-components of the field will matter. The
components perpendicular to the axis will cancel out. So, we should use dE
x
instead of dE.
So,
2 2
cos( )
x
x x
dE dE dE dE
r
R x
= = =
+
. Combining these two results, we get that
( )
3
2 2 2
x
kxdq
dE
R x
=
+

To get the total field, we integrate over all the elements. Although the expression looks complicated, x
and R are constants, and integrating dq q =

, the total charge. So, the field of the ring is in the x-
direction, equal to
( )
3
2 2 2
x
kqx
E
R x
=
+
. Its always a good idea to check a result like this for the extreme
cases, since these are usually known. If x = 0, E
x
= 0, which is reasonable. If x R (goes to infinity), then
( ) ( )
3 3
2 2 2 3 2 2
x R x x + = , so E
x
goes to the field of a point charge q. The ring seems like a point
charge from a great enough distance.
dq
dE
x
dE

x
r
R
2. Find the field a distance x along the axis of a charged disk, of radius a, charge Q. A disk can be
seen as composed of rings. Since we know the expression for E
x
on the axis of a ring of radius
R, charge q, we can use concentric rings as charge elements.
So, we have an element of charge dq of radius
R, width dR. To find the amount of charge dq,
we use the total charge Q and the area of the
disk to find the surface charge density (i.e.
charge per unit area):
2
Q Q
A a

= =
The area of the element (annulus of radius R,
width dR) is 2 RdR - this is accurate to first
order in dR. Thus.

2
2QRdR
dq ds
a
= =


The field due to this element is, using our previous result for the ring,
( ) ( ) ( )
3 3 3 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2
x
kxdq kx QRdR kQx RdR
dE
a a
R x R x R x
= = =
+ + +

The total field, due to all the elements, is found by integrating this from R = 0 to R = a.
( )
3 2
2 2 2
0
2
R a
x x
R
kQx RdR
E dE
a
R x
=
=
= =
+


This integral can be done by a u-sub: letting u = R
2
+ x
2
, du = 2RdR, the integral becomes
2 2
2 2
2
2
3 1
2 2
2 2
1 1
1
2
a x
a x
x
x
u du u
x
a x
+
+

(
= =
(

+

So,
2
2 2
2
1
x
kQ x
E
a
a x
| |
=
|
+
\


For the case of x a, the 2
nd
term = 0 and
2
2
2
x
kQ
E k
a
= = . This corresponds to an infinite plane of
charge, and we learn that the field is constant, independent of x.
R
a
For the other extreme, x a, we can write
( )
( )
2
2 2 2
2
2 1 2
1
1 1 1
2
1
x
kQ kQ kQ
a
E
x
a a x
a
x
| |
|
| | (
= =
| |
(
\
|
+
\

where the binomial approximation was used. We see that, like the ring, from a great distance the disk
behaves like a point charge.