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Question
A spherical shell made of plastic, contains a charge Q distributed uniformly over its surface. What is the electric field inside the shell? If the shell is hammered to deshape it, without altering the charge, will the field inside be changed? What happens if the shell is made of a metal?
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Solution
As the shell is made of plastic, it is non-conducting. But as the charge is distributed uniformly over the surface of the shell, the sum of all the electric field vectors at the centre due to this kind of distribution is zero. But when the plastic shell is deformed, the distribution of charge on it becomes non-uniform. In other words, the sum of all the electric field vectors is non-zero now or the electric field exists at the centre now.
In case of a deformed conductor, the field inside is always zero.
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