Electrostatics

Basic quantities of electrostatics

Governing equations
r1 and r2: The position vectors from the origin of the
coordinate system to the point charges Q1 and Q2 respectively
in FREE SPACE.
Fig 1: System of two point charges
R: Distance between two point charges
showing the electrostatic force vector
According to Coulombs law the magnitude of the force (f )
between any two objects in free space separated by a distance
R much larger than their dimension is

Free Space:
In Vacuum

Fig 1. This gives magnitude of force but force is a vector. What about the direction!

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The force on point charge Q2 due to the existence of point charge Q1 is

The force on point charge 1 is equal and opposite to the force on point charge 2;
therefore, f1 = f2.
Let us dene the electric eld intensity, or simply the electric eld (E), as the force f2
normalized with respect to the Size of the test charge, which in this case is Q2.

Then

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Electric Potential:

Work done by an electric field on a unit charge to move it from

point A to point B is defined as potential difference between
point A and B. If W work has been done on q charge,B

W
VB VA E. dr
q
A

Equipotential surface:

At every point on the surface the

potential is same!

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Electric Displacement (D):

Electric field lines are generated from a point charge.
In free space, D can be defined as number of electric field
lines that crosses per unit area of the surface.

The direction of the vector D is the direction of the electric eld lines that cross the surface.
Faraday demonstrated that the electric displacement is related to the electric eld in a free
space through the expression:

In Free Space !!!

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Units:

Coulomb

1F indicates capacitance which can store 1C

charge when 1V is applied across it

C2 C

Farad: F
Nm V

Volt

Unit of permitivity of free space ( o ) :

Volt (V):

Nm J

C
C

Electric field (E): E

N V

C m

F
m

Electric displacement (D): D

C
m2

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Insulators are materials that consist of a large proportion of bound charge.

Bound charge in insulators will reorient under the application of an electric eld but will
not exhibit the motion that is characteristic of conductors.
Bound charge can be visualized as a pair of point charges of equal and opposite charge Q
separated by a distance d. The dipole moment (p) associated with this pair of point
charges is dened as
Where d is the vector from the
negative charge to positive charge

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If there are n dipole moments per unit volume, polarization of the material is
defined as:

Electric displacement (D) may be written as

Where, polarization (P) is product of a constant and the electric eld (E) vector
P 0 E e
1 e R
R is dened as the relative permittivity, which is a
unit less parameter that is always greater than 1

We can have relationship between electric field and electric displacement as:

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Q1

x
Q2

Superposition Principle:
For all linear forces the
total force is a vector sum
of individual forces

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Gausss law:

At any point on the surface we can dene a differential

unit of area (ds) whose unit normal is perpendicular to
the surface at that point. The electric displacement that is
in the direction of the unit normal at point x is written
D(x)ds.
Gausss law states that the integral of D(x)ds over any
closed surface is equal to the total free charge enclosed
within that surface.

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Divergence Theorem:

Converts surface integral to volume integral and vice versa