Gauss's Law, Derivation of Gauss's Law | Physics@TutorVista.

com 6/22/2017

Over 10,998,000 live tutoring sessions served!

To get the best deal on Tutoring, call 1-855-666-7440 (Toll Free)
Home How it works About Us

Physics Electricity and Magnetism Electrical Theory Gauss Law

Gauss Law Gauss Law Follow 1

What is Gauss Law?

Derivation of Gauss's Law We know that the electric field of surface is given by Coulombs law. But for closed surface, the distribution of electric charge which produces the electricity
is given by Gauss law. This is also known as flux theorem. This is one of the important laws which are helpful for determining amount of charge that present
Gauss's Law for
Magnetism on closed surface and for calculation of electric field. The basis of classical electrodynamics is given by Maxwell and Gauss law is one of them. The other
three equations of Maxwell are the induction law of Faraday, law of ampere with modification of Maxwell, and the magnetism law of Gauss.
Gausss Law Examples
Gauss law is also useful for derivation of Coulombs law of electric field. The mathematical form of this law is given by vector calculus. It can be in integral
and differential form which is related the divergence theorem. Here, we are discussing about both the law of Gauss related to electricity and magnetism and
Related Concepts its mathematical derivation with its examples. Lets discuss complete description of this.

Gauss's Law
The Epitome
Related Formulas of quattro
Boyle's Law Equation Examples

Related Calculators
Gauss Elimination Calculator

Related Worksheets
Law of Cosines Worksheet

TutorVista
63k likes

Like Page

Be the first of your friends

to like this
What is Gauss Law? Back to Top

Gauss's law states that the enclosed electric charge in a closed surface is proportional to the net flux of an electric field through the
surface.

The Gauss's law is one of the Maxwell law of electromagnetism and it relates to the electric fields at points on the Gaussian (closed) surface and the net
charge enclosed by that surface.
The flux of the electric field passing through a closed surface is defined as the product of the electric field passing through the area and the area of the
surface in a plane perpendicular to the field.
In other words, Gauss law is also defined as the total charge Q enclosed within a surface divided by dielectric constant.
Hence, Gauss law can be mathematically written as,

Q
= 0

Where,
= Electric flux through a given surface,
Q = total charge within a given surface,
0 = Electric constant.

From the equation (1) we can also state that the electric flux flowing outwards to the surface is proportional to the total electric charge enclosed by it.
The Gauss law can also be mathematically defined as surface integral of the Electric field through the given surface,

x=s
= x=0 E.dA................(2)

where,
E = electric field,
dA = infinitesimal element of area of the enclosed surface.

The above equation (2) can also be written by the divergence theorem as

.E = 0 ....................(3)

where,
. E = electric field divergence,
= total electric charge density.

Derivation of Gauss's Law Back to Top

Gauss law is also defined as the total charge Q enclosed within a surface divided by dielectric constant.
Hence Gauss law can be mathematically written as,

Q
=
0

Where,
= Electric flux through a given surface,
Q = total charge within a given surface,
0 = Electric constant.
From the equation (1) we can also state that the electric flux flowing outwards to the surface is proportional to the total electric charge enclosed by it.
The Gauss law can also be mathematically defined as surface integral of the electric field through the given surface,

x =s
= x =0 E.dA ................(2)

where,
E = electric field,
dA = infinitesimal element of area of the enclosed surface.
The above equation (2) can also be written by the divergence theorem as,

.E =
0 ..............(3)

where,
.E = electric field divergence,
= Total electric charge density.

x =s
= x =0 E.dA.

v =V 0 dv
= v =0

1
0 v =V
= v =0 dv

Solving the above equation we have,

Q
=
0

This is the same equation we have already discussed and represented in equation (1).

The electric field passing through the given surface is given by

Q
= 0

= E. A

Q
E= A0

For the spherical surface A = 4 r2 and

Hence the Electric field through it is,

Q
E= 4r20

Gauss's Law for Magnetism Back to Top

It is also one of the four Maxwell equation.

The Gauss Law for Magnetism states that there are no magnetic charges analogous to the electric charges.
The net magnetic flux out of any closed surface is zero.

Gaussian Integral Form:

= B. dA = 0

where, B = applied magnetic field

dA = small area Considered

Differential Form:

.B=0

The magnetic field is best represented by the magnetic dipole.

Although the magnetic dipole is similar to the positive and negative electric charges but magnetic monopole doesnt exist in reality, this
means that the magnetic poles exist only in dipole.

Gausss Law Examples Back to Top

Now we will discuss few Gauss Law Examples to understand it better. For this we will now find the electric flux passing through sphere (also known as
Gauss Law Sphere) and cylinder (also known as Gauss Law Cylinder) which nearly represents near Gaussian surfaces.

1) Electric flux for a sphere of uniform charges:

Consider a sphere of radius R with charge Q distributed inside uniformly. For determining electric field E as a function of radius r of the sphere, we will use
Gauss's law.
In the given figure below a spherical Gaussian surface of radius r is shown which are centered at the center of the spherical charge distribution.
The radius r of the spherical surface could be larger or could be smaller than the radius R of the spherical charge distribution.
For both the cases (r < R and R > r) we will find the electric field.
Gauss's Law Sphere charge distribution
For r < R:

For r < R, the charges enclosed by the spherical surface would be less than the total charge Q, and hence to find the charges we will use the ratios of
volumes. Let the charges in the radius r as Q'and the total charges at radius R is Q then the ratio of volumes is given as:

4
3 r3

(Q) 4
Q = 3 R3
..........................(4)

and Hence the equation (4) can be rewritten as,

r3
Q
Q = R3

The charge due to the radius R is given by

r3
Q' = R3 Q

So, the electric flux to the sphere with radius r

is:

Q
=
0

substituting the value of Q', we get

r3
=Q
0R3 ..........(5)

Consider the case for r > R, we have

The charges Q' at radius r is given by Q' = Q

Since the total charge is enclosed in the sphere and hence the electric flux is given by

Q
=
0 .............(6)

Similarly we can find electric flux for the cylinder also.

2) Electric flux for a cylinder of uniform charges:

Let us consider a cylinder of infinite length. The electric field of such cylinder with the uniform volume charge density can also be obtained by using Gauss's
law. Considering a cylinder with radius r > R, the electric field is same magnitude at all points of the cylinder. This field is directed outward to the surface of
the cylinder.

So, the Electric flux of such cylinder is the electric field times the area of the cylinder and can be shown as,

x =s
= x =0 E.dA.

where E = Electric intensity,

dA = small area
Since, the electric field is constant and hence

x =s
=E x =0 dA.

Thus the Electric flux is given by

= E (2 rL) ..................(7)

where, = Electric flux lines

E = Electric field intensity
r = radius of the cylinder
L = length of the cylinder.
Electric Field Capacitor

Related Topics
Physics Help Physics Tutor

*A P and S A T are regis tered tradem arks of the College B oard.

About Us | Careers | Contact Us | Blog | Homework Help | Teaching Jobs | Search Lessons | Answers | Calculators | Worksheets | Formulas | Offers
Loading [MathJax]/jax/output/HTML-CSS/jax.js Copyright 2017 - TutorVista.com, All rights reserved.

http://physics.tutorvista.com/electricity-and-magnetism/gauss-law.html 1/1