EECS 117

Lecture 8: Electrostatic Potential & Gauss Law

Prof. Niknejad
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 1/11
Electric Dipole
x
y
z
r
r
+
r

+q
q
An electric dipole is two equal and opposite charges q
separted by a distance d
Consider the potential due to an electric dipole at points
far removed from the dipole r d
(r) =
q
4r
+
+
q
4r

=
q
4
_
1
r
+

1
r

_
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 2/11
Law of Cosines
Vector summation is fundamentally related to a triangle.
Note that we can think of adding two vectors r and zd/2
as forming r
+
= r +zd/2
The length of a vector is given by |a|
2
= a a
We can therefore express r
+
in terms of r and d
r
+
=

r
+
r
+
=
_
(r +
d
2
z) (r +
d
2
z)
Or simplifying a bit and recalling that r d
r
+
= r

1 +
_
d
2r
_
2
+
d
r
cos r
_
1 +
d
r
cos
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 3/11
Back to Potential Calculation
So we have
1
r
+
=
1
r
1
_
1 +
d
r
cos

1
r
_
1
d
2r
cos
_
and
1
r
+

1
r
_
1 +
d
2r
cos
_
So that the potential is given by
(r) =
q
4
_
1
r
+

1
r

_
=
qd cos
4r
2
Unlike an isolated point charge, the potential drops like
1/r
2
rather than 1/r
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 4/11
Electric Field of a Dipole
The potential calculation was easy since we didnt have
to deal with vectors
The electric eld is simply E =
Since our answer is in spherical coordinates, but there
is no variation due to symmetry, we have
= r

r
+

1
r

= r
2qd cos
4r
3
+

1
r
qd
4r
2
sin
Thus the electric eld is given by
E =
qd
4r
3
_
r2 cos +

sin
_
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 5/11
Electric Flux Density
It shall be convenient to dene a new vector D in terms
of E
D = E
Note that the units are simply C/m
2
.
We call this the ux density because the amount of its
ux crossing any sphere surrounding a point source is
the same
_
S
D dS =
_
2
0
_

0
q
4r
2
r
2
sin dd ==
q
4
22 = q
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 6/11
Gauss Theorem
Because of the 1/r
2
dependence of the eld, the
integral is a constant
Gauss law proves that for any surface (not just a
sphere), the result is identical
_
S
D dS = q
Furthermore by superposition, the result applies to any
distribution of charge
_
S
D dS =
_
V
dV = q
inside
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 7/11
Gauss Law Proof
First of all, does it makes sense? For instance, if we
consider a region with no net charge, then the ux
density crossing the surface is zero. This means that
the ux lines entering the surface from the left equal the
ux lines leaving the surface on the right
We can prove that the ux crossing an innitesimal
surface of any shape is the same as the ux crossing a
radial cone
Notice that if the surface is tilted relative to the radial
surface by an angle , its cross-sectional area is larger
by a factor of 1/ cos
The ux is therefore a constant
d = D dS = D
r
dS cos = D
r
dS

cos
cos = D
r
dS
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 8/11
Application of Gauss Law
For any problem with symmetry, its easy to calculate
the elds directly using Gauss Law
Consider a long (infnite) charged wire. If the charge
density is C/m, then by symmetry the eld is radial
Applying Gauss law to a small concentric cylinder
surrounding the wire
_
D dS = D
r
2rd
Since the charge inside the cylinder is simply d
D
r
2rd = d
D
r
=

2r
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 9/11
Spherical Cloud of Charge
Another easy problem is a cloud of charge Q. Since the
charge density is uniform = Q/V , and V =
4
3
a
3
_
D dS =
_

4
3
r
3
= Q
_
r
a
_
3
r < a
Q r > a
But
_
D dS = 4r
2
D
r
D
r
=
_
Qr
4a
3
r < a
Q
4r
2
r > a
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 10/11
Charge Sheet
Consider an innite plane that is charged uniformly with
surface charge density
s
By symmetry, the ux through the sides of a centered
cylinder intersecting with the plane is zero and equal at
the top and bottom
The ux crossing the top, for instance, is simply DdS,
where D only can have a y component by symmetry
The total ux is thus 2DdS. Applying Gauss Law
2DdS =
s
dS
The electric eld is therefore
E = y
_

s
2
0
y > 0

s
2
0
y < 0
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 8 p. 11/11