# Method of Images Motivation: Uses in the [[Shockley-Ramo Theorem]]. ## The Concept Using symmetry of a system, we can skip the difficult integrals that might be necessary to determine the potentials that have to satisfy boundary conditions. >This method of satisfying the boundary conditions imposed on the field of a point charge by a plane conductor by using an opposite charge at the mirror image position of the original charge, is called the _method of images_. The charge of opposite sign at the mirror-image position is the "image-charge." [^1] ![[Pasted image 20220707154640.png]] The image shows a case in which the boundary condition requires the electric field on the surface of an infinitely large conducting surface to be constant. This is a Dirichlet boundary condition, but that's a little beside the point :] [^1]: Relevant link to MIT notes about [Mirror Charge technique](http://web.mit.edu/6.013_book/www/chapter4/4.7.html#:~:text=This%20method%20of%20satisfying%20the,the%20%22image%2Dcharge.%22) This concept also follows from boundary conditions applied from [[Poisson's Equation]].