The well‐known image method for a conducting sphere in front of an electrostatic source, due to Lord Kelvin from 1848, is generalized for electrostatic problems involving a dielectric sphere and for magnetostatic problems involving a permeable sphere. It is seen that the image sources are very simple, for a point source they consist of a point source plus a line source obeying a simple power law. The expressions are checked to satisfy all known limit cases. The image theory can be applied with simple computing devices for static or quasistatic problems involving material spheres.

Topics
Dielectric properties, Electrostatics, Electrodynamics, Thermodynamic states and processes
This content is only available via PDF.
© 1993 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1993
American Association of Physics Teachers
AAPT members receive access to the American Journal of Physics and The Physics Teacher as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.