---
title: "An electric dipole consisting of two point charges, \\(+q\\) and \\(-q\\), is fixed near the center of the cavity inside an uncharged, isolated conducting spherical shell. Outside the outer boundary of the shell, the electric field is observed to be zero everywhere. Which of the following best explains why no electric field exists outside the conducting shell?"
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url: "https://nerd-notes.com/ubq/118262/"
date_modified: "2026-08-04T08:08:28+00:00"
---

# An electric dipole consisting of two point charges, \(+q\) and \(-q\), is fixed near the center of the cavity inside an uncharged, isolated conducting spherical shell. Outside the outer boundary of the shell, the electric field is observed to be zero everywhere. Which of the following best explains why no electric field exists outside the conducting shell?

An electric dipole consisting of two point charges, \(+q\) and \(-q\), is fixed near the center of the cavity inside an uncharged, isolated conducting spherical shell. Outside the outer boundary of the shell, the electric field is observed to be zero everywhere. Which of the following best explains why no electric field exists outside the conducting shell?

![A cross-sectional view of a hollow spherical conducting shell with a circular inner boundary and a concentric circular outer boundary. The conducting wall region between the inner and outer boundaries is shaded gray. Inside the central circular cavity, an electric dipole is shown as two small circles labeled +q and -q connected by a short horizontal line segment. The region outside the outer circular boundary is unshaded and labeled 'Exterior region'. No other labels, lines, text, or axes appear.](https://nerd-notes.com/wp-content/uploads/ubq-frq-generated/stem-fig-1-1785830908-2yxfFx.jpg)

- **A.** The conducting wall is an equipotential volume, which forces the outer surface of the shell to be at a uniform potential. Because the net charge on the shell and the net enclosed charge are both zero, the exterior potential is constant and the exterior electric field is zero everywhere.
- **B.** The equal and opposite charges of the dipole induce equal and opposite charges that cancel locally at every point on the inner cavity surface, leaving the inner surface completely uncharged.
- **C.** The electric field lines originating from \(+q\) all terminate directly on \(-q\) within the cavity, preventing any electric field lines from reaching the inner surface of the conducting shell.
- **D.** The electric field produced by the dipole decays to zero inside the conducting material because the conductor absorbs the electric flux passing through it.

*The answer key and step-by-step explanation are available to logged-in users at https://nerd-notes.com/ubq/118262/*