ELECTRIC CHARGES AND FIELDS

Electrostatics
● Property of substances due to which they attract light objects called electricity
● Frictional/ Static Electricity- Developed by rubbing or friction. Substances become electrically-
charged
● Electric charge- Intrinsic property of elementary particles of matter which gives rise to electric
force between objects.
Scalar
1 e = 1.6 × 10-19 C
1 me = 9.1 × 10-31 kg
α-particle = +2 e

Equal number of electrons and protons- electrically- neutral

● Electrostatics- Study of electric charge at rest

● Applications-
(i) Electrostatic loudspeaker
(ii) Xerox copying machine
(iii) Cathode ray tube in televisions and radars

● Fundamental Law of Electrostatics- Like charges repel and unlike charges attract
● Polarity- Property which distinguishes two kinds of charge
● Work function- Energy required to remove an electron from surface of material
Electrons transferred from material with lower to higher work function

Conductor Insulator
Substances through which electric charges can flow Substances through which electric charges cannot
easily flow easily
Transferred charge gets readily distributed over its
Transferred charge stays at same place
entire surface

● Earthing/ Grounding- Process in which body shares its charges with earth
Live wire- Red, brings in current
Neutral wire- Black, returns current
Earth wire- Green, connected to a thick metal plate buried deep inside the earth

● Electrostatic Induction- Phenomenon of temporary electrification of conductor in which opposite

charges appear at closer end and similar charges appear at farther end in presence of a nearby
charged body
𝑛

𝑞= ∑ 𝑞𝑖
𝑖=0

● Quantum- Minimum amount by which physical quantity can change

 ● Electric charges occur in discrete amounts instead of continuous amounts; called quantization of
electric charge. Hence, total charge ‘q’ of body is always an integral multiple of basic quantum of
charge ‘e’
𝑞=𝑛 × 𝑒, 𝑛∈𝑍

𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 = 𝑚𝑒 × 𝑛

During rubbing, only an integral number of electrons can be transferred from one body to another
● Elementary particles like protons and neutrons are built out of more elementary units called
2 1
quarks, which have charges +(3) e and – (3) e

● Law of Conservation of Charge- Total charge of isolated system remains constant. Electric
charges can neither be created nor destroyed only transferred from one body to another

Coulomb’s Law
● Coulomb's Law- Force of attraction/ repulsion between two stationary point charges is directly
proportional to the product of magnitudes of two charges and inversely proportional to square of
the distance between them
● Central Force- It acts along the line joining two charges
1
𝐹 ∝ 𝑞1 𝑞2 , 𝐹 ∝ 2
𝑟

𝑞1 𝑞2
𝐹∝
𝑟2

𝑞1 𝑞2
𝐹=𝑘
𝑟2

1 𝑞1 𝑞2
⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐹 21 = 𝑟̂
12
4𝜋 𝜀0 𝑟 2

k- Electrostatic force constant. It depends on nature of medium

1
𝑘 = 4𝜋 𝜀 = 9 × 109 𝑁𝑚2 𝐶 −2
0

ε0 - Permittivity of free space = 9 × 10-12 C2 N-1 m-2

● 1 coulomb is that amount of charge that repels an equal and similar charge with a force of 9 ×
109 𝑁 when placed in vacuum at a distance of 1 meter from it
● In electrostatic CGS system, unit of charge is stat coulomb (stat C)
1 C = 3 × 109 stat C

● In electromagnetic CGS system, unit of charge is abcoulomb

1
1 C = 10 abcoulomb
● Limitations-
 a) Coulomb's law is valid only for point charges
b) Charges must be at rest
c) Separation between charges > 10-15m, else strong nuclear forces would dominate
● Range- 10-15 m to 1018 m

● Charges exert equal and opposite forces on each other

⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐹 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
21 = − 𝐹12

● Permittivity- Property of medium which determines electric force between two charges situated in
that medium
● Relative permittivity (εr)/ Dielectric constant (κ)- Ratio of permittivity of medium to permittivity
of free space
𝜀 𝐹𝑣𝑎𝑐
𝜀𝑟 = 𝜅= =
𝜀0 𝐹𝑚𝑒𝑑

Electrostatic Force Gravitational Force

Obey inverse square law
Proportional to product of charges/ masses
Central Forces
Conservative Forces- Work done doesn’t depend on path followed
Operate in vacuum
Both attractive and repulsive Only attractive
Depends on nature of medium between the two
Doesn’t depend on nature of medium
charges

● Negative sign indicates that force is attractive

● Principle of superposition- When a number of charges are interacting, total force on given charge
is vector sum of forces exerted on it due to all other charges
𝑛

𝐹= ∑ ⃗⃗𝐹𝑖
𝑖=0

Electric Field/ Intensity

● Force experienced by a unit positive test charge placed at a point without disturbing the position
of source charge
Vector field
𝐹
𝐸⃗ =
𝑞0

● Electric field is a characteristic of the system of charges and is independent of test charge placed
● SI Unit- NC-1 or Vm-1
● All points on spherical surface drawn around point charge, magnitude of 𝐸⃗ is same and does not
depend on direction; called spherically symmetric or radial field
 𝑑𝑞
𝐹 = 𝜅 𝑞0 ∫ ⋅ 𝑟̂
𝑟2
Electric Dipole
● Pair of equal opposite charges separated by a small distance
● Dipole moment- Vector whose magnitude is charge times separation between two opposite
charges, and direction is along dipole axis, from negative to positive charge
Location measured from midpoint between charges
𝑝 = 𝑞 × 2𝑎

● Ideal/ Point dipole- Dipole where

2𝑎 → 0, 𝑞 → ∞

Thus, p = q × 2a has a finite value, and such a dipole has negligibly small size

● Dipole Field- Electric field produced by electric dipole

● Electric dipole experiences no net force, but a non-zero torque
● Since net force is 0, no linear acceleration is produced

Electric Field Lines

● Electric line of force- Curve along which small positive charge would tend to move when free to
do so in electric field and tangent to which at any point give the direction of electric field at that
point
● Imaginary
● Continuous
● Starts at positive charge and ends at negative charge; thus, cannot form closed loops.
● No 2 lines of force can cross each other- If they intersect, two tangents will be formed at point of
intersection. Thus, there will be two directions of electric field at same point, which is not
possible
● Always normal to surface of conductor on which charges are in equilibrium- If not, component of
field 𝐸⃗ parallel to surface would cause electrons to move and set up current. But no current flows
in equilibrium
● Tendency to contract lengthwise- Attraction between two unlike charges
● Tendency to expand laterally so as to exert lateral pressure on neighboring lines of force-
Repulsion
● Closeness of lines of force gives measure of strength of electric field
● Do not pass through conductor because electric field inside a charged conductor is zero
● Electric field strength is proportional to density of lines of force

Electric Flux
● Measure of total number of electric lines of force passing normally through a given area held
inside an electric field
● Scalar
● SI Unit- Vm/ Nm2C-1
∆𝜙𝐸 = 𝐸 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 × ∆𝑆 = 𝐸⃗ ⋅ ∆𝑆 ⃗⃗⃗⃗

Gauss Theorem
1
● Total flux through closed surface is times net charge enclosed by closed surface
𝜀0
● Gaussian surface- Any hypothetical closed surface enclosing charge