Coulombs law Coulomb's law states that: "The magnitude of the Electrostatics force of interaction between two point

charges is directly proportional to the scalar multiplication of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distances between them." The scalar form of Coulomb's law is an expression for the magnitude and sign of the electrostatic force between two idealized point charges, small in size compared to their separation. This force (F) acting simultaneously on point charges (q1) and (q2), is given by

where r is the separation distance and ke is a proportionality constant. A positive force implies it is repulsive, while a negative force implies it is attractive.[2] The proportionality constant ke, called the Coulomb constant (sometimes called the Coulomb force constant), is related to defined properties of space and can be calculated based on knowledge of empirical measurements of the speed of light:[3]

In SI units, the meter is defined such that the speed of light in vacuum (or electromagnetic waves, in general), denoted c,[4] is exactly 299,792,458 ms1[5], and the magnetic constant (0) is set at 4 107 Hm1.[6] In agreement with electromagnetic theory, requiring that

the value for the electric constant (0) is derived to be 0 = 1/(0c2) 8.854187821012 Fm1.[7] In electrostatic units and Gaussian units, the unit charge (esu or statcoulomb) is defined in such a way that the Coulomb constant is 1 and dimensionless. In the more useful vector-form statement, the force in the equation is a vector force acting on either point charge, so directed as to push it away from the other point charge; the right-hand side of the equation, in this case, must have an additional product term of a unit vector pointing in one of two opposite directions, e.g., from q1 to q2 if the force is acting on q2; the charges may have either sign and the sign of their product determines the ultimate direction of that force. Thus, the vector force pushing the charges away from each other (pulling towards each other if negative) is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The square of the distance part arises from the fact that the force field due to an isolated point charge is uniform in all directions and gets "diluted" with distance as much as the area of a sphere centered on the point charge expands with its radius. The law of superposition allows this law to be extended to include any number of point charges, to derive the force on any one point charge by a vector addition of these individual forces acting alone on that point charge. The resulting vector happens to be parallel to the electric field vector at that point, with that point charge (or "test charge") removed. Coulomb's law can also be interpreted in terms of atomic units with the force expressed in Hartrees per Bohr radius, the charge in terms of the elementary charge, and the distances in terms of the Bohr radius. Electric field Main article: Electric field

It follows from the Coulomb's Law that the magnitude of the electric field (E) created by a single point charge (q) at a certain distance (r) is given by:

For a positive charge, the direction of the electric field points along lines directed radially away from the location of the point charge, while the direction is the opposite for a negative charge. The SI units of electric field are volts per meter or newtons per coulomb.

Electric Field of Point Charge The electric field of a point charge can be obtained from Coulomb's Law:

The electric field from any number of point charges can be obtained from a vector sum of the individual fields. A positive number is taken to be an outward field; the field of a negative charge is toward it. This electric field expression can also be obtained by applying Gauss' law. OR

What will be the electric field intensity due to a point charge? Lets think that we want to calculate the electric field intensity at point p caused by charge q at some point O. So, OP=r. Lets suppose a test charge having positive charge is present at point P. If we apply the coulombs law of forces on it then the equation formed will be:

Where is the unit vector from charge q towards charge

As

Therefore

2.3 The below are vectors which are showing the electric field around a positive charge.

Linear Charge Distribution: When the distribution of charge is uniformly along the line then it is called Linear Charge Distribution. E.g. line making the circumference of a circle, straight line, etc. It is denoted by symbol .

= dq / dl. It is measured in Cm-1 .Lets take a small element having length dl of the line L. The small amount of charge on this element is

dq=

. dl.

So the resultant force can be calculated by using the formula:

Total force on small charge elements by adding them vectorially is:

Vectors and Scalars: Vectors and scalars are the two classification of physical quantities in physics. Physical quantities are divided into vectors and scalars according to the range of information denoted by the quantity. Vectors: If we need to denote the motion of an object along a straight line we can take its motion to be positive in one direction and negative in another , But if we need to denote the motion of an object in two or three dimensions then it is not possible to denote direction of the motion using simple positive or negative numbers. So we need to introduce vectors here. A vector is a quantity which have both magnitude and direction. Vectors follow certain rules of combination and we cannot use simple algebra to do vector addition , subtraction , multiplication and division. The simplest example of Vector is Displacement vector.

A displacement vector is the vector which depicts the motion of an object , it depicts the total Displacement of the object and the direction of the motion. A displacement vector from Point A to B is denoted by:

and is read as vector a b We can also represent as vector using an italic letter like: a , b , c We can Represent the Displacement vector in image or geometrically as:

vectors and scalars : Displacement Vector

The Gradient The gradient is a vector operation which operates on a scalar function to produce a vector whose magnitude is the maximum rate of change of the function at the point of the gradient and which is pointed in the direction of that maximum rate of change. In rectangular coordinates the gradient of function f(x,y,z) is:

If S is a surface of constant value for the function f(x,y,z) then the gradient on the surface defines a vector which is normal to the surface.

physical meaning of divergence and curl and their uses

if the divergence is positive at a point, it means that, overall, that the tendency is for fluid to move away from that point (expansion); if the divergence is negative, then the fluid is tending to move towards that point (compression). Curl is a little more involved than this. The direction of the curl vector suggests the axis around which a particle immersed in the fluid at a fixed point (but otherwise allowed to rotate freely) would rotate in an anticlockwise direction, provided its rotation is only due to the aggregate effect of contact with the fluid immediately around it; the maginitude (modulus) of the curl vector is then the speed at which it rotates.

Biot-Savart Law { Force between Static Currents

There is a force not only between electric charges but also between electric currents. This force has a di_erent nature than that one due to electric charges, it is due to magnetic _elds produced by the currents. Figure 17: Example of an experiment
illustrating the existance of the magnetic force between two current carrying wires.

It has been _rst noticed by Oersted in 1819, and few years later, in 1827 by Ampere who showed that quantitatively the magnetic forces in macroscopic circuits can be accounted for by what has come to be known as the Biot-Savart Law. To illustrate the presence of magnetic forces between electric currents, consider an experiment involving two long parallel wires carrying currents I1 and I2 and separated by a distance d, as shown in the Figure 17. Experimental observations: _ If I1kI2 then the force F is attractive. _ If I1 antik I2 then F is repulsive. _ If one of the wires is rotated through 90_ then F = 0. _ The force is proportional to the currents I1 and I2. All the above observations can be conbined into a single equation for the force acting on the current I2: d ~F2 = _0 4_ I2d~` 2 _ (I1d~` 1 _ ^r) r2 ; where _0 = 4_ _ 10 7 [H/m] in SI units, is the permeability of the vacuum. 49 We can write the force as d ~F2 = I2d~` 2 _ d~B ; where d~B = _0 4_ I1d~` 1 _ ^r r2 ; which is known as the Biot-Savart law for magnetic _eld produced by the current element I1d~` 1.

The Biot-Savart law allows to compute magnetic _eld produced by an arbitrary current distribution Id~` ~B = _0I 4_
Z
l

d~` _ ^r r2 : (9) The method requires integration of small current elements. Note, all three quantities appearing under the integral change during the integration, which complicates the evaluation of the integral. We can simplify the calculations of ~B by using the following procedure. If we replace ^r=r2 by r(1=r), the integrand becomes d~` _ r(1=r) : Next, using a vector identity we _nd that r_
0 @d~`

r
1 A=

1 r r _ d~` d~` _r
_

1 r
_

= d~` _r
_

1 r
_

; since r _ d~` = 0. Hence, we can write ~B =r_ _0I 4_

Z
l

d~` r : (10)

Thus, the magnetic _eld can be expressed as ~B = r _ ~A : 50 We see that r _ ~B = 0 always. Thus, in this case we can _rst calculate ~A: ~A = _0I 4_
Z
l

d~` r ; (11) which involves only two variables d~` and r, and then using (10), we _nd ~B. The integral for ~A is easier to calculate than the original expression (9) for ~B. Since the curl operation is readily performed, we may use (11) as an intermediate step for _nding ~B in a simpler way. As we have already mentioned, the vector ~A is called a vector potential, and will see later in the course many useful applications of ~A in electromagnetic theory.