Given conductors and charges outside the conductors, is the superposition of the electric potentials due to induced charges on the conductor surfaces and other charges constant in the conducting region? Although it is a natural question raised by students of electromagnetism, it does not seem to be addressed directly in textbooks. An identity that relates the potential due to the induced charge on a closed conductor surface to other potentials is useful for answering the question and also for making clearer the phenomenon of electrostatic shielding.
REFERENCES
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E. M. Purcell, Electricity and Magnetism (McGraw–Hill, New York, 1985), 2nd ed., pp. 94–96.
2.
D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics (Prentice–Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989), 2nd ed., pp. 116–121.
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W. K. Panofsky and M. Phillips, Classical Electricity and Magnetism (Addison–Wesley, Reading, MA, 1962), 2nd ed., pp. 43–44.
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Reference 3, p. 102.
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Reference 3, pp. 107–111.
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2003
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