Question 01/97

An electrostatic potential has been measured everywhere outside a sphere of radius R. It was found that the potential is spherically symmetric, i.e. depends only on the distance r from the center of the sphere, and is given by the expression A/r, where A is some constant. No measurement of the potential inside the sphere has been performed. What can you say about the charge distribution inside the sphere.

This question was suggested by M. Schwartz.

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