ELECTROSTATICS

Electrostatics branch of physics that deals with the phenomena and

properties of stationary or slow-moving (without
acceleration) electric charges
the class of phenomena recognized by the presence of
electrical charges, either stationary or moving, and the
interaction of these charges, this interaction being solely
by reason of the charges and their positions and not by
reason of their motion
Electrostatic force interaction between electric charges at rest

Electrostatic force between charges falls off as

the inverse square of their distance of
separation, and can be either attractive or
repulsive.
Electric Charge can be a single proton or electron, or a net electric
charge, such as a group of free valence electrons in a
conductor

A positive charge means that the object has lost

electrons and is no longer electrically neutral.
A negative charge means that the object has
gained electrons.
Properties of Electrically Charged Objects:

Like charges repel one another.

Unlike charges attract each another.
Charge is conserved. A neutral object has no net charge.

Fundamental Concepts:
1. Coulombs Law of Electrostatics the force between two charges
acts along the line between the charges, and is
proportional to the product of the charges and to the
inverse square of the distance between them

where:
F
k
Q
r

force, Newton
Coulomb's constant, 9 x 109 Nm2/C2
magnitude of each charge, coulombs
distance between the centers of the two charges

If F is negative, that means that the charges

carry opposite "signs" - that is, one is positive
and the other is negative. The negative answer
means that the point charges are attracting each
other - it does NOT mean that F is acting in a
negative direction.
If F is positive, that means that the charges
carry the same "sign" -- that is, either both are
positive or both are negative. A positive answer
means that the point charges are repelling each
other - it does NOT mean that F is acting in a
positive direction.
2. Electric field the force per unit charge exerted on a small positive
test charge (q0) placed at that point.

3. Gauss' law the total electric flux through a closed surface is

proportional to the total electric charge enclosed
within the surface

4. Poisson's equation provides a relationship between the potential

and the charge density

where:
- vacuum permittivity

ELECTRIC FIELDS
Electric Field

- an electric property associated with each point in space

when charge is present in any form
- developed by Michael Faraday
- describes the force on a charged particle due to all the
other charges in its neighborhood

Addition of Electric Forces:

The electric force between charges is a two-body force: the

force between two charges is given by Coulomb's law
independently of the presence of any other charges.

The net force F1 on the charge q1

is the vector sum of the forces F21
and F31 caused by q2 and q3. In the
diagram F1 is the diagonal in a
parallel of forces.

F1 = F21 + F31

The force on a charge is the vector sum of the forces due

to all other charges.

The vector rij between the charges

qi and qj is the difference of the
position vectors ri and rj.

Electric Field Strength

electric field intensity, or simply electric field

the force per unit positive charge that would
be experienced by a stationary point charge

where:
F
electric force experienced by the test particle
q0 charge of the test particle in the electric field
E
electric field wherein the particle is located

The dimensions of the electric field are force per unit

charge, and it is measured in newtons per coulomb: if a
charge of one coulomb were placed in an electric field of
strength one newton per coulomb it would experience a force
of one newton, and this force would act in the direction of
the electric field vector at the position of the charge.
The strength of the electric field depends on
the source charge, NOT on the test charge.

Since fields are directly related to the forces

they exert, their strength decreases with
distance, and increases with the size of the
charge producing the field.

Electric field lines radiate outwards from a

positive point charge and inwards towards a
negative point charge.

Electric Field Lines Properties:

The lines begin on positive charges and terminate on negative charges.

The number of lines drawn emerging from or terminating on a charge
is proportional to the magnitude of the charge.
No two field lines ever cross in a charge-free region.
The line approaches the conducting surface perpendicularly.

Electric Dipole the pair of equal and opposite charges separated by a

small distance

The field lines around an

electrostatic dipole start at the
positive charge and bend round to
end on the negative charge.

Principle of Superposition the electric field due to a collection of N point

charges is the vector sum of the individual
electric fields due to each charge

Gausss Law

the total electric flux through a closed surface is

proportional to the total electric charge enclosed within
the surface
the total flux of the electric field out of any closed
surface equals the total charge enclosed within the
surface divided by 0

where: Q = i qi is the sum of all the charges situated within S

The proof of Gauss's law depends on the mathematical

concept of solid angle, which is the measure of the angular
size of a cone.
Electric Flux:

The vector S has a magnitude equal

to the area S of the small surface
and is perpendicular to it.
Flux of E = ES cos

The sign of the flux depends on whether is greater or

less than 90o.
If the component of S in the direction of the field is
positive, is less than 90o and the flux is positive; if
this component is opposite to the field, the flux is
negative.

Any surface like the shaded surface

S may be divided up into many
adjacent surfaces Si. In the limit
as the Si become infinitesimal, each
one may be regarded as a plane
surface.

The flux through a closed surface

due to a charge outside the surface
is zero.

Flux may pass several times in and

out of a closed surface, but for a
charge located inside the surface
the flux always passes outwards one
more time than it passes inwards.

When a system of charges possesses a simple symmetry, the

electric field may be calculated easily using Gauss's law.

ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
Electric Potential

the amount of work needed to move a unit

charge from a reference point to a specific point
against an electric field
the potential energy of a positive test charge
divided by the charge q0 of the test charge

The electric field does work on

the charge q when it moves from B
to C.
Like the electric field, the electric potential
is a function of position. Unlike the electric
field, it has a magnitude but no direction; it is
a scalar field.
The electric potential obeys the principle of
superposition.
The flow of electric field lines (test charges)
is caused by a difference in electric potential.

The dashed lines are perpendicular to the electric field

due to the charge q1 and no work is
done if q follows the path BCDEB.

The electrostatic force is conservative.

The potential energy of q in the

field of q1
depends on
the
distance |
r-r1|
between
them.

Equipotential Surfaces surfaces (not necessarily physical surfaces)

which are at equal electric potential

Equipotential surfaces are

always perpendicular to the
direction of the electric field
(the field lines).
Field lines radiating outwards from
the charge q1 are perpendicular to
the spherical equipotential surface.

Field lines (solid) and

equipotential lines (dashed) in a
plane through a charge q1.

The relation between field E and

potential is found by moving a
charge in the field. The
equipotentials are the dashed lines.

Voltage Difference simply the voltage between the two points

Electric potential a distance r away from a point charge q:

Electric potential arising from many point charges:

CAPACITOR
Capacitor used to store electric charge
consist of a pair of conductors with a potential difference
maintained between them

The conductors in a capacitor are usually close together

and separated by a solid insulator.

Equal and opposite induced

charges occur on the plates of the
capacitor when they are held at
different potentials.
The charge on the plates of a
capacitor is proportional to the
voltage between them.

Capacitance of the Capacitor:

Q=CV
where:

for a parallel plate capacitor in vacuum.

The unit of capacitance is the farad (symbol F).

The capacitance C is determined by the dimensions and
geometrical arrangement of the capacitor.

The capacitance is increased by inserting dielectric

material between the plates of the capacitor.
Relative Permittivity factor by which the capacitance is increased by the
insertion of the insulating material
an older name for this factor is dielectric
constant
simply a number for materials that are isotropic,
that is, materials that have no directional
properties

Relative
permittivities
of
some materials, measured in
steady fields. The value for
silicon is included although it
is too good a conductor to be
used as the dielectric material
in a capacitor. However, the
relative
permittivity
of
semiconductors in steady fields
has an important influence on
their behaviour.

Stored energy of a Capacitor total work done in building up charges Q

on the plates of an initially uncharged
capacitor, which is the potential energy
stored by the capacitor