ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the variational principle, conducting surfaces embedded in a dielectric medium, restricted forms of the variational principle, and finite dielectric bounded by conductors. The electrostatic problem is completely specified by the location of the conductors and dielectrics, the free volume charge density, and the charge on each conductor. The charges on the surfaces of conductors always readjust themselves in such a way that each conductor becomes an equipotential surface and the total energy of the system is a minimum. The chapter considers a region of space with dielectric constant bounded by an array of conductors into which one introduces an uncharged conductor at a location where there is no free charge density. It introduces Green’s function in the presence of conductors that are grounded.
