 The whole Electrostatics is contained in the Coulomb’s Law &

superposition principle
 Coulomb’s Law is an empirical fact
 The law was arrived at by considering the limiting behavior of
interacting particle

Coulomb arrived at idealised force

law for two point charges

Interacting object need not come in

to physical contact to exert forces

1 𝑞1 𝑞2
𝐹= 𝑟
4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟 2
 Some invisible fluids is emerging from a +ve charge
 Another positive charge in this vicinity carried away by this
invisible fluids
 There is a force field associated with the above invisible fluid
 The force field standardized in terms of unit test charge is called
electric field

The electric field intensity at a point,

𝑭
𝑬 = 𝒍𝒊𝒎
𝒒→𝟎 𝒒
where q is the test charge, F is the force it experiences

𝑭 1 𝑞
𝑬= = 2 𝑟
𝒒 4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟
If number of source charges are present, then the test charge will
experience the vector sum of the individual forces.

For an extended charge distribution, made up of identical charges

dQ, each dQ will set up its on field

The total field is the superposition of individual fields

1 𝑑𝑄
𝑬= 𝒅𝑬= 2 𝑟
4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟

𝒅𝑸 = 𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒅𝒂 × 𝒅𝒍
dQ=sigma X ds
dQ=𝝆 𝒅𝝉
• For any vector field, the flux through the
surface is the corresponding surface integral.
This follows from the expression for flux in
fluid dynamics
 1 𝑞
𝑬= 𝑟
4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟 2

∅= 𝑬. 𝒅𝒔

𝑟 𝑑𝑠 = 𝑟 𝑑𝜃 𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑑∅ 𝑟

𝑞
r ∅= 𝑬. 𝒅𝒔=
𝜀0
q

If we have a number of sources inside, then

Total flux,
𝑞𝑖 𝑞𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑
∅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝑖 𝑬 . 𝒅𝒔= 𝑖 = (Gausses law)
𝜀0 𝜀0
Gauss Divergence Surface
Bounding
Theorem volume
Surface
element

𝜵. 𝑽 𝒅𝝉 = 𝑽 . 𝒅𝒔

Volume
Stoke’s Theorem element

𝜵 × 𝑽 . 𝒅𝒔 = 𝑽.𝒅𝒍
 𝑞
𝑬. 𝒅𝒔=
𝜀0
Using Gauss divergence theorem

𝜵. 𝑽 𝒅𝝉 = 𝑽 . 𝒅𝒔

𝑞
𝜵. 𝑬 𝒅𝝉 =
𝜀0
If there is a continuous charge distribution

𝑞= 𝜌 𝑑𝜏

𝜌
𝛻. 𝐸 𝑑𝜏 = 𝑑𝜏
𝜀0
𝜌
𝛻. 𝐸 = (differential form of Gauss law)
𝜀0
 1 𝑞
𝑬 = 4𝜋𝜀 2𝑟
0 𝑟

𝑏 𝑏
1 𝑞
𝐸 . 𝑑𝑙 = 𝑟 . 𝑑𝑟𝑟 + 𝑟 𝑑𝜃𝜃 + 𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝑑∅ ∅
𝑎 4𝜋𝜀0 𝑎 𝑟2

If path is closed a=b

𝐸.𝑑𝑙 = 0

Now applying stokes theorem

𝜵 × 𝑽 . 𝒅𝒔 = 𝑽.𝒅𝒍
• What ever be the path of the line integral is
zero
• Therefore what ever be the path surface
integral is zero.
• The value of the surface integral is
independent of the choice of the surface,
Hence it is determined by curl E alone
• There for it follows that curl E=0
 Electric potential

𝐸.𝑑𝑙 = 0 𝐸𝑥 𝑑𝑥 + 𝐸𝑦 𝑑𝑦 + 𝐸𝑧 𝑑𝑧 = 0

𝑞 𝑞
𝐸. 𝑑𝑠= 𝐸𝑥 𝑑𝑠𝑥 + 𝐸𝑦 𝑑𝑠𝑦 + 𝐸𝑧 𝑑𝑠𝑧 =
𝜀0 𝜀0

From the theory of vector field we know that if the curl of

the vector field is zero, it must be gradient of some scalar
field, conventionally ∅ = −𝑽
Then 𝑬 = −𝜵𝑽
V is called the electric potential, negative sign is
conventional this follows from the analogy with gravity
 𝐸 = −𝛻𝑉

The grad will always point in the direction in which the

scalar field strength increases most rapidly

Thus for a point charge, it points radially inwards if the charge is

positive

+q

∇V

• We expect that strength of the electric potential fall as we

move away from the source
• Conventionally zero is set at the infinity
Since Electric field follows superposition principle, the potential also follows
superposition principle
𝐸1 + 𝐸2 = −𝛻𝑉1 + −𝛻𝑉2

𝐸 = −𝛻 𝑉1 + 𝑉2 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟

𝑏 𝑏
𝐸. 𝑑𝑙 = − 𝛻𝑉. 𝑑𝑙
𝑎 𝑎
𝑏
𝐸. 𝑑𝑙 = 𝑉𝑎 − 𝑉𝑏
𝑎
𝑏=𝑟
𝐸. 𝑑𝑙 = 𝑉𝑎=∞ − 𝑉𝑏=𝑟
𝑎=∞
𝑟
𝐸. 𝑑𝑙 = −𝑉𝑟
∞
𝑟
𝑉𝑟 = − 𝐸. 𝑑𝑙
∞
An Electric dipole is formed when two point charges
of equal magnitude but opposite sign are separated
by a small distance
Electric flux line is an imaginary path or line drawn in
such a way that its direction at any point is the
direction of the electric field at that point