You are working for the summer at a research laboratory. Your research director has devised a scheme for holding small charged particles at fixed positions. The scheme is shown. A large insulating sphere of radius a carries a total positive charge Q with a uniform volume charge density. A very thin tunnel is drilled through a diameter of the sphere and two small spheres with charge q are placed in the tunnel. These spheres are represented by the blue dots in the figure. They find equilibrium positions at a distance of r on either side of the center of the sphere. Your research director has had great success with this scheme. (a) Determine the specific value of r at which equilibrium exists. (b) Your research director asks you to see if he can extend the system as follows. Determine if it is possible to add transparent plastic tubes as extensions of the tunnel and have the small spheres be in equilibrium at a position for which r > a.
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