Electrostatics

The classical study of electricity is generally divided into three general areas.

electrostatics: the study of the forces acting between charges

electric current: the study of the forms of energy associated with the flow of charge
electromagnetism: the study of the forces acting between charges in motion

What Is Electric Charge?

Electric charge is the fundamental physical property of matter uncovered in experiments.
Electric charges are carried by elementary particles - the electrons and protons.
Electrons are said to carry negative charge, while protons are said to carry positive charge,
although these labels are completely arbitrary.
Protons and electrons attract each other.
Protons repel each other, as do electrons.
In general, like charges repel and unlike attract.
The SI derived unit of electric charge is the coulomb (C).
Protons and electrons carry charges of ±1.602 × 10−19 C
1 coulomb corresponds to the amount of charge for about 6.24×1018 electrons.
Because protons are generally confined to the nuclei imbedded inside atoms, they are not
nearly as free to move as are electrons. Therefore, when we talk about electric charge, we
nearly always mean a surplus or deficit of electrons. When an imbalance of charges exists,
and electrons are able to flow, an electric current is created.
Electric charge is a conserved quantity. That means it cannot be created or destroyed, and
the net amount of electric charge in the universe is constant and unchanging.
An object with an absence of net charge is referred to as neutral.
The term neutral does not refer to a third type of charge, but to the presence in a region of
positive and negative charges in equal amount.
Vacuum permittivity

The vacuum permittivity ε0 = 8.854187817...×10−12 F⋅m−1 is a constant which relates the

units for electric charge to mechanical quantities such as length and force and describes
electrical properties of classical physics vacuum.
It is the one of the most fundamental constants of the Universe.
Speed of electromagnetic field propagation in vacuum is

where μ0 = 4π×10−7 H/m is the vacuum permeability.

Ɛ is a relative permittivity of a dielectric medium.

It is a constant of proportionality that exists between electric displacement and electric
field intensity in a given medium.

Coulomb's Law
Coulomb's law, or Coulomb's inverse-square law, is an experimental law of physics that
quantifies the amount of force between two stationary, electrically charged particles. The
electric force between charged bodies at rest is conventionally called electrostatic force or
Coulomb force.
In its scalar form, the law is:

Where ke is Coulomb's constant (ke ≈ 9×109 N⋅m2⋅C−2) , q1 and q2 are the signed
magnitudes of the charges, and the scalar r is the distance between the charges.
The force of the interaction between the charges is attractive if the charges have opposite
signs (i.e., F is negative) and repulsive if like-signed (i.e., F is positive).

Electrostatic field
An electrostatic field surrounds an electric charge, and exerts force on other charges in the
field, attracting or repelling them.
The electrostatic field is defined mathematically as a vector field that associates to each
point in space the (electrostatic or Coulomb) force per unit of charge exerted on an
infinitesimal positive test charge at rest at that point.
The SI unit for electrostatic field strength is volt per meter (V/m) or Newtons per coulomb
(N/C).

Electrostatic field surrounding a positive (red) and a negative (blue) charge

The electric field is normalized electric force. Electric field is the force experienced by a test
charge that has a value +1 C.
If we have multiple charges scattered about, we express the electric field by summing the
fields from each individual qi (superposition principle).

Electrostatic potential
An electrostatic potential is the amount of work needed to move a unit of positive charge
from a given point to infinity producing an acceleration.

The electrostatic potential for a system of point charges is equal to the sum of the point
charges' individual potentials. This fact simplifies calculations significantly, because addition
of potential (scalar) fields is much easier than addition of the electric (vector) fields.
The electric potential at infinity is assumed to be zero.
Dimension of electrostatic potential is joule per coulomb (J C-1), or volts (V).

Electric potential around two spheres at opposite potential. The color coding runs from
cyan (negative) through yellow (neutral) to pink (positive).
Problems