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FIELD THEORY NOTES

BY
Dr.K.L.SUDHA
Prof, Dept Of ECE,
DSCE, Bengaluru

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Coulombs Law and Electric Field Intensity

This chapter deals with Coulombs Law and Electric field intensity produced by different
types of charges.
Charge is a physical quantity that can be transferred from one object to another. Charged objects
can exert forces on other charged objects and also on uncharged objects. Electric charge comes in
two types, Positive and negative charge. Conductors are materials in which charges can move
about freely; insulators are materials in which electric charge is not easily transported. Charge is
a scalar and is measured in coulombs. The charge of an electron is -1.6021771019C.
Charles Coulomb invented that there is force exerted between two charges which is directly
proportional to the charge magnitudes and inversely proportional to the distance between
them.

The force is along the straight line joining them. If the two charges have the same sign, the
electrostatic force between them is repulsive; if they have different sign, the force between them
is attractive.

In terms of vector quantity

q1 q 2
q1 q 2 R
F aR

4R 2 4R 3
where
The constant

R
a R
R,

R R

=8.854X10-12 is the permittivity of free space in C2 m2 N1 or F/m.

=0 r , r is the relative permittivity of the material in which the charges are immersed, and is
dimensionless.

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Coulombs law is linear. Force on a charge in the presence of several charges is the sum of forces
on that charge due to each of the other charges acting alone.
F=F1+F2+F3+
Problems
1. A point charge of +3.00 106 C is 12.0 cm distant from a second point charge of
1.50 106 C. Calculate the magnitude of the force on each charge
Being of opposite signs, the two charges attract one another, and the magnitude of this force is
given by Coulombs law

= (8.99 109)(3.00 106 C)(1.50 106 C)/(12.0 102 m)2

= 2.81N
2. Two identical conducting spheres, fixed in place, attract each other with an
electrostatic force of 0.108N when separated by 50.0 cm, center-to-center. The
spheres are then connected by a thin conducting wire. When the wire is removed,
the spheres repel each other with an electrostatic force of 0.360N. What were the
initial charges on the spheres?
Let the charges on the spheres be q1 and q2. If the force of attraction between them has
magnitude 0.108N, then Coulombs law gives us
F = k |q1q2|/r2 = (8.99 109) |q1q2|/(0.500m)2 = 0.108N m from which we get
|q1q2| =(0.108N)(0.500m)2(8.99 109) = 3.00 1012 C2
But since we are told that the charges attract one another, we know that q1 and q2 have opposite
signs and so their product must be negetive. So we can drop the absolute value sign if we write
q1q2 = 3.00 1012 C2
Then the two spheres are joined by a wire. The charge is now free to redistribute itself between
the two spheres and since they are identical the total excess charge will be evenly divided
between the two spheres. If the new charge on each sphere is Q, then
Q + Q = 2Q = q1 + q2
The force of repulsion between the spheres is now 0.0360N, so that
F = kQ2r2 = (8.99 109)Q2(0.500m)2 = 0.0360N
Q= 1.00 106 C
But q1 + q2 = 2Q = 2.00 106 C
Choosing + sign and solving for q1 and q2
q1 = 3.00 106 C

or

q1 = 1.00 106 C

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q2 = 1.00 106 C

or

q2 = 3.00 106 C

But these really give the same answer: One charge is 1.00 106 C and the other is +3.00 106
C.
3. Given

4. Given

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6. Four charges are placed in rectangular coordinate system as shown in the figure
below.Find the total force exerted on the point P(0,0,3) because of all four charges.

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7.

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Electric Field Intensity

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Consider a charge in fixed position and move a second charge slowly around.One can observe
that there exist everywhere a force on this second charge i.e this second charge is displaying the
existence of a force field. If we take this as a test charge, then from coulombs law,

Ft a 1t

q1 qt
4R1t

Writing this force as a force/unit charge

Ft
q1
E a 1t
2
qt
4R1t
This equation represents a vector field and is called Electric field intensity.
Electric field intensity is defined as the strength of an electric field at any point. It is equal
to the force per unit charge experienced by a test charge placed at that point. The unit of
measurement is the volt/meter
If charge is located at the centre of a spherical coordinate system, then direction is given by
radial vector and distance is the radius r

E ar

q1
4r 2

Since coulomb forces are linear, E due to multiple charges on test charge add up and E in general
can be written as

qm

4 r r
m 1

am

Line, Surface, and Volume Charge Distributions

Charges can distribute themselves on a line with line charge density L (coul/m), on a surface
with surface charge density s coul/m2or throughout a volume with volume charge density v
(coul/m3). Consider a distribution of free charge dq of differential size within a macroscopic
distribution of line, surface, or volume charge. Then, the total charge q within each distribution is
obtained by summing up all the differential elements. This requires integration over the line,
surface, or volume occupied by the charge.

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If different types of charge distributions are there, total electric field at a point due to all these
charges is obtained by summing electric field produced by each. i.e Etotal=EL+Es+Ev+Ep

Charge distributions. (a) Point charge; (b) Line charge; (c) Surface charge; (d) Volume charge.

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Problems:
1.

2.

3. Find the total charge within Line charge L uniformly distributed in a circular loop
of radius a circular disc of radius a and a sphere of radius a
Circular loop

Q l dl
l

ad 2a
l

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Circular disc
Q s ds
s

adrd 2a
l

r 0

Sphere of radius a

Q v dv
v

4.

vr

0 r 0

4
sin( )drdd a 3 v
3

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5.

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Derive the expression for the electric field intensity E at P due to an infinite line charge of
density l C / m along Z axis.

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Develop an expression for E due to a charge uniformly distributed over an infinite plane
with a surface charge density of S C / m2.
Let the plane be perpendicular to Z axis and we shall use Cylindrical Co-ordinates. The source
charge is an infinite plane charge with S C / m2 .

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Problems:

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Determine the electric field caused by spherical cloud of electrons with a volume charge
density =-0 for 0 R b (both 0 and b are positive) and =0 for R>b.
(a) R b

b3
Q
0
4 3 E a

a
R
R
Q 0
b
2
4 0 R
3 0 R 2
3
,

(b) 0 R b

E a R E , d S a R dS ,

si

Q dv 0 dv 0
v

E d S E dS E 4 R 2
si

4 3 E a 0 R
R
R
3 0
3
,