Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-2-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/8/a/solution

Take the grounded plane as . The method of images replaces it, in , by an image charge at and an image charge at . These make the electric potential zero on the plane; the uniqueness theorem for the electrostatic potential establishes the solution in the physical half-space.
At , both real point charges contribute upward electric fields, each of magnitude . The nearer image charge contributes downward and the farther one upward. Hence
This is upward for ; retaining signed automatically handles the opposite sign. No self-electric field is involved because the evaluation point is distinct from every point charge.

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