UNIT 2 : ELECTROSTATICS

Instructor: Shaikh Azeemuddin

The sources of EMF waves are electric charges and strength of a field at any point depends upon magnitude, position, velocity and acceleration of the charges. Electrostatic field is a special type of EMFs, where charges are stationary and we need only magnitude and direction of the charges.

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Coulombs Law The Electric Field Gauss Law

The sources of electromagnetic fields are electric charges the strength of a field at any point depends upon the magnitude, position, velocity and acceleration of the charges involved. In an electrostatic field sources are stationary, so that only the magnitude and position of the charges need to be considered..

The force of attraction or repulsion between any two point charges is directly proportional to the product of two charges and inversely proportional to the square of distance between them. The force is repulsive when both charges are like and attractive when the charges are unlike

Consider the two point charges Q1 and Q2 separated by a distance r. The force of interaction between two point charges is given as follows:
=
1 2 2 1 2 2

Newton

Where K is the constant of proportionality and depends on nature of medium between the charges.

The value of K is determined as 1 = = 9 109 4 As force is a vector quantity so

1 2 2

Here is unit vector in the direction in which the force is applied.

is the permittivity of the medium or dielectric constant which is written as = 0 Farad/metre.

Relative permittivity of the medium =

Permittivity of the free space or vacuum, 0 =
1 36109

= 8.854 1012 F/m

Example 2.1 Find the force on charge Q1, 20 C due to charge Q2, - 300 C where Q1 is at (0, 1, 2) m and Q2 at (2, 0, 0) m. Example 2.2 Point charge Q1 = 300 C located at (-1, 1, -3) m experiences a force 1 = 8 8 + 4 due to point charge Q2 at (3, -3, -2) m. Determine Q2.

Consider a charge Q fixed in position and move another charge q, call it as test charge, around the fixed charge. The test charge experiences a force around the fixed charge Q, i.e. electric field is set up around Q and any charge brought into this field will experience a force.

The electric field or electric field intensity is defined as the electric force per unit charge. It is
given by:

So electric field,

N/C

Example 2.3 Find electric field intensity, E at (0, 3, 4) m due to a point charge, Q = 0.5 C at the origin.

If a test charge is moved towards the charge Q, the test charge will experience force due to the main charge Q. The lines of force is called as electric flux which is equal to the charge itself. The electric flux from electric charge Q is given by =

Example 2.4 Three point charges, Q1 = 30 nC, Q2 = 150 nC and Q3 = - 70 nC are enclosed by surface S. What net flux crosses S?

Electric flux per unit area. D= = =Coulomb/metre

= = =

For spherical surface area;

But Therefore
Example 2.5

= / =
=D

A point charge, Q = 80 nC, is located at the origin. Find the electric flux density D at (1, 0, -4).

Example 2.6 Find the flux density due to a charge of 3C positioned at (2, 2, 1) exerting a force on another charge of 2C positioned at (-3, 0,-1).

Continuous Charge Distribution and Gausss Law If charges are distributed instead of concentrated at one point, it is better to define charge distribution in terms of charge density. The different types of charge density are given below. 2.4

Surface Charge Density: The total charge distributed over a surface. This gives the total charge per unit area. It is given by =

Coulomb/sq metre (C/m)

Volume Charge Density: The total charge distributed over a volume. This gives the total charge per unit volume. It is given by =

Coulomb/Cubic metre (C/m)

Gausss law is means of finding E or D for symmetrical charge distribution.

The electric flux passing through any closed

surface is equal to the total charge enclosed by the surface.

The total flux passing through the closed surface is given by Qtotal And electric flux density is defined as

DS

S d DS d D S .d S dS

d dS

where S is the surface area

Or

D S .d S ( A)
S

We know that Qtotal In terms of volume charge density, Q can be obtained as: Q dQ v v dv dQ v dv

Q v dv ( B)
Now using divergence theorem for equation (A).

D S .d S (.D S )dv (C )
S v

Comparing both equations (B) and (C) we come to know that the divergence of electric flux density is equal to the volume charge density.

v .D S ( D)
Equations (A) and (D) are expressions for Gauss Law of electric field.

Example 2.7 Find the charge in the volume defined by 0 1 , 0 1 and 0 1 , if = 2 /3 . What change occurs for the limits 1 0 ?

Consider a uniform electric field E and test charge q, in the field E. If the test charge is moved from one point to another point in the electric field E, a force acts on the test charge due to the electric field. This force is given by: = Since there is a movement of charge in the electric field from one point r1, to another point r2, there will be work done against the force.

The work done in moving Q a distance of dr is: = Joules Integrating both sides, =
2 1

Joules

Example 2.8 Calculate the work done in moving 2C charge from B(2,2,2) to A(3,-5,2). The electric field is define as:

E 20x 2 a x 4 y 2 a y V / m

work done in moving a unit positive charge from one point to another in an electric field = = = Volts 2 = = 1 =
=
4 2

1 4 2

1 1

Volts

This is the potential difference between two points, r1 and r2. 4

V = V2 V1 If the test charge is moved from infinity to a given point in the electric field, V1 = 0 Then V = V2
1 1

=0

The work done in moving a unit positive charge from infinity to a given point in an electric field is called absolute potential. = Volts 4 1 = 0 1 = 1
Example 2.9 A force F 8a x 3a y 3a z Newtons is applied on a charge of distance d 10a x 2a y 7a z meters . i. ii. iii. Find the vectors indicating direction of force and distance; and Find the work done by this force. Find the absolute potential of this charge. 1nC to move it over a

The work done by an external force in moving a unit positive charge from one point to the other is = = = Volts Consider the scalar potential V is a function of x, y, z ,then above equation can be written as

This can be re-written as + + . + + = = =

+ + =

Comparing both sides

E .V V Thus the electric field strength at any point is just the negative of the potential gradient at that point.

Example 2.10 Given the potential field, = 6 2 + 6 + 4 volts and a point P (-4, 3, 6), find: a. Potential V at point P b. Electric field intensity E at point P c. Electric flux density D at point P d. Volume charge density at point P

According to Gausss law in point form, the divergence of electric flux density is equal to the volume charge density. . = But, = . = . = . =

E = . = . =

2 =

Poissons equation for Cartesian co-ordinate system is written as 2 2 2 2 = 2 + 2 + 2 = If the volume charge density is zero, then 2 = 0 This is Laplaces equation. The operator 2 is called Laplacian operator.

is Poissons Equation