University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields

College of Engineering Stage: Third Year

Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

Lecture No.2
Coulomb Forces and Electric Field Intensity
2.1 Coulomb’s Law
The force between two charges Q1 and Q2 is given by Coulomb’s law as
follow:

where F1 is the force on charge Q1 due to a second charge Q2, a21 is the unit
vector directed from Q2 to Q1, R21 = R21 a21, and ε is the permittivity of the
medium.
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EXAMPLE 1 Find the force on charge Q1, 20 μC, due to charge Q2, -300 μC,
where Q1 is at (0, 1, 2) m and Q2 at (2, 0, 0) m.

Because 1 C is a rather large unit, charges are often given in microcoulombs

(μC), nanocoulombs (nC), or picocoulombs (pC). Referring to Fig. 2-1 the vector
R21 could be found as:

Fig. 2-1

The force magnitude is 6 N and the direction is such that Q1 is attracted to Q2

(unlike charges attract).
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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

The force field in the region of an isolated charge Q is spherically symmetric.

This is made evident by locating Q at the origin of a spherical coordinate system,
so that the position vector R, from Q to a small test charge Qt << Q, will simply
be R = r ar. Then:
… (for Point Charge)

showing that on the spherical surface r = constant, ⎪Ft⎪ is constant, and Ft is

radial.

The force on a charge Q1 due to (n -1) other charges Q2, …, Qn is the vector
sum of the individual forces (i.e. Superposition):

This superposition extends in a natural way to the case where charge is

continuously distributed through some spatial region: One simply replaces the
above vector sum by a vector integral (see Section 2.3).

2.2 Electric Field Intensity

Suppose that the above-considered test charge Qt is sufficiently small so as
not to disturb significantly the field of the fixed point charge Q. Then the electric
field intensity, E, due to Q is defined to be the force per unit charge on Qt and
could be written as E = Ft /Qt.
For Q at the origin of a spherical coordinate system [see Fig. 2-2(a)], the
electric field intensity at an arbitrary point P is, then from Section 2.1,

Fig. 2-2

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

In an arbitrary Cartesian coordinate system [see Fig. 2-2(b)],

The units of E are newtons per coulomb (N/C) or the equivalent, volts per meter
(V/m).
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EXAMPLE 2 Find E at (0, 3, 4) m in Cartesian coordinates due to a point charge
Q = 0.5 μC at the origin.
In this case,
R = 3 a y + 4 az R=5 aR = 0.6 ay + 0.8 az

Thus, ⎪E⎪ = 180 V/m in the direction aR = 0.6 ay + 0.8 az.

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2.3 Charge Distributions

When the charge is not a point charge and being distributed throughout a
specified Volume, Surface (sheet) or over a certain Line as shown in Fig. 2-3,
then there will be a three different categories of charge density (ρ) as follow:
𝑑𝑄 C
𝜌𝑣 = ( ) … Volume Charge Density
𝑑𝑣 m3
𝑑𝑄 C
𝜌𝑠 = ( ) … Surface Charge Density
𝑑𝑠 m2
𝑑𝑄 C
𝜌𝑙 = ( ) … Line Charge Density
𝑑𝑙 m

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2-3

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

With reference to these three different configurations (Volume, Surface,

Line) as shown in Fig. 2-3, each differential charge dQ produces a differential
electric field,

Assuming that the only charge in the region is contained within any of these three
possible different configurations (Volume, Surface, Line), then the total electric
field at the observation point P is obtained by performing the integration over
the differential volume, surface or line, respectively, as follow:
𝜌𝑣 𝑑𝑣
⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐄 =∭ 𝐚 … for Volume Charge
𝑣 4 𝜋 𝜀0 𝑅2 𝑅

𝜌𝑠 𝑑𝑠
⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐄 =∬ 𝐚 … for Surface Charge
𝑠 4 𝜋 𝜀0 𝑅2 𝑅

𝜌𝑙 𝑑𝑙
⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐄 =∫ 𝐚 … for Line Charge
𝐿 4 𝜋 𝜀0 𝑅2 𝑅

2.4 Standard Charge Configurations

In the three special cases of integration discussed in Section 2.3, it should be
noted that the charge is not “on a conductor.” When a problem states that charge
is distributed in the form of a disk, for example, it does not mean a disk-shaped
conductor with charge on the surface. (In Chapter 6, conductors with surface
charge will be examined.) Although it may now require a stretch of the
imagination, that these charges should be thought of as somehow suspended in
space, fixed in the specified configuration. In this section the standard charge
configurations will be introduced due to their importance and being almost more
existing cases practically.

• Point Charge
As previously determined (see Section 2.2), the field of a single point charge
Q is given by:
𝑄
⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐄 = 𝐚 (spherical coordinates)
4 𝜋 𝜀0 𝑟 2 𝑟
See Fig. 2-2(a). This is a spherically symmetric field that follows an inverse-
square law (like gravitation).

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

• Infinite Line Charge

If charge is distributed with uniform density 𝜌𝑙 (C/m) along an infinite,
straight line—which will be chosen as the z-axis—then the field is given by:
𝜌𝑙
⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐄 = 𝐚 (cylindrical coordinates)
2 𝜋 𝜀0 𝑟 𝑟

See Fig. 2-4. This field has cylindrical symmetry and is inversely proportional
to the first power of the distance from the line charge. (For a derivation of E, see
Problem 2.9).

Fig. 2-4

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EXAMPLE 3 A uniform line charge, infinite in extent, with 𝜌𝑙 = 20 nC/m, lies
along the z-axis. Find E at (6, 8, 3) m.

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• Infinite Plane Charge

If charge is distributed with uniform density 𝜌𝑆 (C/m2) over an infinite plane,
then the field is given by:
𝜌𝑆
⃗⃗⃗⃗
𝐄 = 𝐚
2 𝜀0 𝑛

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

See Fig. 2-5. This field is of constant magnitude and has mirror symmetry about
the plane charge. (For a derivation of this expression, see Problem 2.12).

Fig. 2-5
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EXAMPLE 4 Charge is distributed uniformly over the plane z = 10 cm with a
density 𝜌𝑆 = (1/3π) nC/m2. Find E.

Above the sheet (z > 10 cm), E = 6 az V/m; and for z < 10 cm, E = - 6 az V/m.
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