OR
qenc
E dA 0 Gauss‟s
Given the electric field in a region
determine the charge distribution
Law
Electric Charge
Glass rods, plastic tubes, silk, and fur can
be used to demonstrate the existence of
“electrical forces” and two kinds of electrical
charge.
Charge quantization is a subtle theoretical issue (i.e. it‟s usually an input into the
theory, unless we are talking about certain Grand Unified Theories which predict
charge quantization).
Charge Conservation
Conservation of electrical charge:
The algebraic sum of all electrical charge in a closed system is a constant in time.
OR
Electrical charge can neither be created nor destroyed.
In any charging or discharging process charge is merely transferred from one place to another.
The conservation law is a universal one – no exceptions have ever (or likely will ever) be observed. Why?
Like energy, momentum and angular momentum conservation, charge conservation is tied to a symmetry of
nature. Whereas the former three are intimately tied to spacetime symmetries, charge conservation is tied
i
to an abstract, “internal” phase rotation symmetry symmetry: e (Noether‟s theorem)
Conductors versus Insulators
Three scenarios we will consider:
1) Stationary charges: v = 0 (electrostatics)
2) Charges moving uniformly: v = const (magnetostatics)
3) Charges accelerating: v changes (electrodynamics)
Since matter is electrically neutral in bulk, we will often think of charges moving within matter.
Conductors: materials in which (valence) electrons are relatively free to move, in a sea of loosely bound electrons.
Think metals.
Insulators: materials which have few available “conduction band” electrons. Think non-metals.
Charging by Conduction
The process of giving one object a net charge by placing it in contact with another object.
Charging by Induction
The process of charging a second object by placing a charged object near it. In a conductor the free electrons are
attracted or repelled by the presence of the nearby charge.
q1q2 1 q1q2
F12 k k 8.988 109 N m2 / C2
r2
12 4 0 r12 2
0 8.854 1012 C2 / N m 2
The force is attractive if sgn(q1)= – sgn(q2 ), and repulsive if sgn(q1)=sgn(q2) ,
and lies along the line that connects the two points.
– + +
YF21.82 (Electric Forces inside the nucleus) Typical dimensions of atomic nuclei are of the order 10-15 m (1 fm).
(a) If two protons in a nucleus are 2.0 fm apart, find the magnitude of the electric force each one exerts on the
other. Could you feel this force?
(b) Since the protons repel each other so strongly, why don‟t they shoot out of the nucleus?
2D Example (YF21.78)
Two point charges q1 and q2 are held in place 4.50 cm apart. Another point
charge Q = – 1.75 μC of mass 5.00 g is initially located 3.00 cm from each of
these charges and released from rest. You observe that the initial acceleration
of Q is 324 m/s2 upward, parallel to the line connecting the two point charges.
Find q1 and q2.
YF21.74 Two identical spheres with mass m are hung from silk threads of length L as
shown. Each sphere has the same charge, so q1=q2=q. The radius of each sphere is
very small compared to the distance between the spheres, so they may be treated as
point charges. Show that if the angle θ is small the equilibrium separation
between the spheres is 1/3
q L 2
d multiple concept questions
2 0 mg with math approximations
YF21.73 Two positive point charges Q are held fixed on the x-axis at x=a and x = –a
A third positive point charge q with mass m is placed on the x-axis away from the origin
at a coordinate x such that x a . The charge q, which is free to move along the
x-axis is then released. (a) Find the frequency of oscillation of the charge q. (b)
What happens if the charge is placed on the y-axis y a instead?
Since the electrostatic force between charges exists even over empty space,
The same issue arises
how does one charge ‘know’ about the other charge? in Newtonian gravity!
NEW(er)
Field as intermediary charge field charge
Each point charge, by virtue of its existence, creates a „field‟ around it in all directions which „instructs‟ other
charges how to behave when immersed in the field. In other words, charges modify the space around them.
“quantum field”
Electric Field To elaborate...
The choice of P was arbitrary, and so the electric field (a „vector field‟) exists
everywhere but at A itself where it is not defined.
The electric field at P yields the force per unit charge on a small test charge placed at P. It depends on the size
and locations of the source charge(s) that set up the field, but NOT the test charge. Furthermore, the field does not
exert a force on the source charges – there are no self-interactions! (This is essentially part of Newton‟s 2nd law.)
Changes in the electric field (say due to a moving source distribution) are propagated away from the source at
the speed of light. For now we are interested in static charge distributions for which the electric field is fixed.
F
Technically the E field at P is the formal limit E qlim
0 q
,
since we don‟t want to consider the effect of the
0
0
Here „mass‟ plays the role of „gravitational charge‟ (it‟s always attractive).
The gravitational field near the earth’s surface is constant in magnitude (since RE is so large), but always
points towards the center of the Earth: an Australian and a Canadian disagree on the direction of the
gravitational field even though they both agree all objects accelerate at 9.8 m/s2.
x d z 1
In both cases we‟ve considered, the combination Qd arises (in addition to the cubic fall-off). This is called the
(magnitude of the) dipole moment, and is denoted by p. Its direction is defined to point from the negative
charge to the positive charge:
p Qd We will return to dipoles at the end of this chapter.
Electric Field Lines
Before we compute the electric field due to more complicated charge configurations, let us consider the
visualization of (otherwise abstract) electric fields a little further.
An electric field line is a curve whose tangent at any point is in
the direction of the electric-field vector there.
Faraday‟s Insight: “Connect the dots”, or in this case connect the arrows
By connecting the arrows, we don‟t lose information about the magnitude of the E –field: instead it is encoded by
the „density of the field lines‟: denser regions correspond to stronger fields.
Warning: field lines are lines of force, NOT trajectories. E-fields give us forces and hence accelerations,
NOT velocities. (Recall EnPh 131: the velocity vector is tangent to trajectory, not the acceleration.)
Electric Field Lines – Other notes
Field lines, like particle streamlines in a
fluid never cross: the E-field is unique at
each point.
By defn, field lines start on positive charges
and end at negative charges or at infinity.
You need to learn these techniques well: the same methods will be used again in the calculation of magnetic fields.
E-field: Uniform line charge along perpendicular bisector (Example 1) 1D
L/2
Consider a charge Q uniformly distributed along a rod of length L lying on the dq
y-axis from y = – L/2 to y = L/2. Compute the E-field at a point along the x-axis.
dq Q
Uniform const Differential element: dq dy Q dy / L
dy L
1 dy
Differential element contribution to E-field at P: dE (cos , sin )
4 0 r 2
(y-comp. has
L /2 xiˆ yjˆ iˆ 1
E-field at P: E dE
4 0 L /2 ( x 2 y 2 )3/2
odd integrand)
dy – L/2
2 0 x 1 4 x 2 / L2
iˆ Q iˆ
Long line/short distance limit: E Long distance limit: E
( x / L 0) 2 0 x 1/r falloff ( x / L ) 4 0 x 2
In this (commonly occurring in this course) case, you must leave dq ( y )dy and integrate using
the given functional form of λ.
E-field: Uniform ring of charge, along its symmetry axis (Example 2) 1D dq
Here dE has x,y and z components depending on the line element.
But by symmetry1 the y and z components of opposite pairs of elements
on the ring cancel. Only the x-component is additive. angular variable
ds a d
dq Q around ring
Differential analysis: const
ds 2 a
1 dq 1 x a d
x-comp. of differential element contribution to E-field at P: dEx cos
4 0 r2 4 0 ( x 2 a 2 )3/2
Q iˆ
a x iˆ Q x iˆ Small x/a limit: E x (so –q, small x exhibits SHM)
E 4 0 a3
Total E-field:
2 0 ( x 2 a 2 )3/2 4 0 ( x 2 a 2 )3/2 Q iˆ 1 (ring appears as point
Large x/a limit: E
(Note: x is constant in the integration!) 4 0 x 2 charge from far away)
1You can certainly set up the y and z components of the E-field (as we will do in
the equivalent magnetic field question), and then show explicitly that when you
integrate over the whole ring, the y and z components integrate to zero.
E-field: Uniform disk, built from infinitesimal rings, along symmetry axis (Example 3) 2D
Use previous result: dq is now the infinitesimal ring of charge, and we „build up‟ the disk by
summing (i.e. integrating) the contributions from the rings, by allowing the radius „a‟ of the
ring to vary: circumference thickness P
dq Q 2Q
Differential element: const , dA 2 a da dq a da x
dA R 2
R 2
dq x iˆ
E-field at P due to ring of radius a: dE 2
(from previous slide!) 4 0 (x a )
2 3/2
Qx iˆ R ada iˆ x
2 0 R 2 0 ( x 2 a 2 )3/2
Now integrate over all rings: E 1
2 0 x2 R2
Close to disk iˆ iˆ R2 Q
or large disk: E const Long distance limit: E 1 1 2 ...
(i.e. point charge)
( x / R 0) 2 0 ( x / R ) 2 0 2 x 4 0 x
2
Now consider two oppositely charged closely spaced „infinitely large‟ (i.e. d/R→0) „plates‟:
superposition
0 above upper sheet
E E1 E2 ˆj between the sheets
0
0 below lower sheet
A Nonuniform Example – Phys 230 Fall 2009 Midterm (Long Answer 1, parts b, c, and e partial)
A non-uniformly charged insulated disk of radius R lying in the yz plane with its center at the origin at x=0, has a
surface charge density given by: C
(r )
r („r‟ is what we were calling „a‟ in the previous
where r is the distance from the center of the disk to a point in the yz plane. two examples. It‟s a more natural choice here,
since we want to emphasize that it is a variable.)
Again, the idea is to build up the disk from infinitesimal rings over which sigma is approximately constant!
E-field: Uniform Spherical Shell “The Shell Theorem” (Example 4) 2D Spherical shell built
Newton invented calculus to solve this problem: what is the gravitational from thin rings
force exerted on a point-like body due to a uniform spherical shell?
We‟re interested in the same problem, applied to electrostatics instead
of gravity: both are inverse-square law forces. Cosine law:
GMm kQq
circumference thickness R 2 2 . 2
s r 2 r2 2rsvscos
Q r
Differential element: dq dA dA
(spherical ring) dA 2 R sin Rd 4 R 2 s 2 r 2 R2 2rR cos
dq x s
E-field contribution from ring: dEx 2 R a=R sin θ
x = distance to ring center 4 0 ( x a 2 )3/2 θ
x s cos
r = distance to center of sphere Q s cos sin d
s = distance to ring surface r
a &R = radius of ring & sphere 8 0 s3
“x-axis” is irrelevant, and the result is general: anywhere inside the shell
E0
Furthermore, with no further work, we can conclude for a uniformly charged solid sphere/ball, the result is the
same. Why? Because we can build the uniform ball up from a series of concentric shells... the shell result tells
us the E-field (outside) depends only on the distance to the center. But each concentric shell has the same center!
This is a very important and simplifying result (in both electrostatics and Newtonian gravity) that we‟ve implicitly
been using all along: it allows us to treat certain objects as points.
As we have seen, symmetry principles play an important role in simplifying many calculations. In the next
chapter we will introduce Gauss’s Law which will allow us to obtain this result in a much simpler manner.
YF21.99 (Example 5: Composite configurations)
(a) Find the magnitude and the direction of the electric field these wires
produce at point P, which is 60.0 cm from each wire.
Another case of importance in which a uniform E-field arises is in the INTERIOR of a CONDUCTOR in an
ELECTROSTATIC situation: namely the E-field is identically ZERO.
Why?
Consider the contrapositive: Suppose the E-field in the interior of a conductor in electrostatic equilibrium was
non-zero. Since it is a conductor, charges on the interior would be free to move under the influence of the non-zero
field. But if they were free to move (and in particular accelerate), then this would not be an electrostatic situation.
Thus the E-field in the interior must be zero, and any excess charge on the conductor must be at its surface(s).
(Note this argument says nothing about the E-field in a hole inside a conductor.)
The electrostatic force does work in rotating an out-of-equilibrium dipole to its equilibrium position. Furthermore,
like gravity, electrostatic forces are conservative, so it makes sense to speak of a potential energy of a dipole...
Dipoles revisited: Potential energy in uniform fields
f f
Recall, by definition: U U 0 U f WC d pE sin d pE cos f pE cos 0
0 0
Thus adopting the universal convention that U (0) pE
Remember only changes in potential
U ( ) pE cos p E energy have meaning. The „zero‟ location
is arbitrary.
1. (4 marks) A spherical conductor of radius r = 50.0 cm and carrying a charge of +4.00 μC is centered at the origin. An
infinite line charge of uniform linear charge density λ = – 2.00 μC/m runs parallel to the x-axis at y = 3.00 m. What is the
magnitude of the E-field at the point P on the x-axis 2.00 m to the right of the origin?
y
a) 3.00×103 N/C
b) 1.08×104 N/C –2 μC/m
c) 1.50×104 N/C
d) 2.00×104 N/C P 3.0 m
e) 2.10×104 N/C 4 μC x
2.0 m
2. (4 marks) Two vertically-oriented oppositely-charged large metal plates are placed a distance 0.25 m apart, and the
potential difference between them is 70 V. A very small metal ball with a mass 8.0×10-4 kg, and a charge of +5.0 μC is
attached to an insulating thread, and lowered into the space between the plates. What angle will the thread make with the
vertical when the metal ball is equilibrium? (Use g = 9.81 m/s 2.)
θ
a) 10°
b) 15° + –
c) 20°
d) 25°
e) 30°