Determination of Electric

Field Using Gauss’s law

Presentation by:
I.NELSON
SSN College of Engineering
 Applications of Gauss’s Law
When the charge distribution possesses symmetry properties, Gauss’s
law is used to determine the flux density and field intensity

At every point on the surface, the direction of is along its outward

normal and only the normal component of at the Gaussian surface
contributes to the integral form of Gauss’s law.
Gauss’s law can be applied successfully by choosing the surface s
such that,
is constant in magnitude and its direction is either normal or purely
tangential at every point on each subsurface of s.

When is normal to the surface, because is constant

on the surface.

When is tangential to the surface, then

Gauss’s law is applicable only to systems with planar, cylindrical and
spherical symmetry.

Gauss’s law is used to determine the field due to a point charge, infinite
line charge, infinite sheet of charge and uniformly charged sphere.

Table 1 Examples of systems having Gaussian surface for computing

electric field using Gauss’s law
 Determination of Field due to a
Point Charge
The integral form of Gauss’s law can be used to determine the field
intensity due to a single isolated charge Q by constructing a closed
spherical surface of arbitrary radius r centered at Q as shown in Fig. 1.

Symmetry conditions will be satisfied by choosing a spherical surface.

Fig. 1 Gaussian surface about an isolated point charge

This electric field intensity due to an isolated point charge is identical to
the one obtained using Coulomb’s law.

For an isolated point charge, either Coulomb’s law or Gauss’s law can be
used to find electric field intensity

Though Coulomb’s law can be used to find for any specified charge
distribution, Gauss’s law is easier to apply than Coulomb’s law but its
applicability is limited to symmetrical charge distributions.
 Determination of Field due to an
Infinite Line of Charge
Consider a line of infinite extent with uniform charge density of C/m
lying along the z-axis.

The electric flux density can be determined by choosing a cylindrical

surface which satisfies symmetry condition as shown in Fig. 2.

It is seen that is constant and

normal to the chosen
cylindrical Gaussian surface.

Symmetry considerations
show that must be in radial
direction
and must not depend on
Therefore,
Fig. 2 Gaussian surface around an infinite line charge
Here, a cylindrical Gaussian surface of radius r is constructed around
the line of charge. The total charge contained within the cylinder is
where h is the height of the cylinder.

Applying Gauss’s law, we get

From the above equation, the magnitude of electric flux density is
represented by

The above electric field intensity due to an infinite line of charge,

obtained using Gauss’s law is identical to the one obtained using
Coulomb’s law.
 Determination of Field due to an
Infinite Sheet of Charge
Consider a sheet of infinite extent with uniform charge density C/m2
lying on the xy-plane.

The flux density can be determined by choosing a rectangular box

which is symmetrical about the sheet of charge and has two of its faces
parallel to the sheet as shown in Fig. 3. It is seen that is constant
and normal to the chosen
rectangular Gaussian
surface.

Symmetry considerations
show that must be in az
direction and must not
depend on x or y.

Fig. 3 Gaussian surface about an infinite sheet of charge As is normal to the

sheet,
This electric field intensity due to an infinite sheet of charge, obtained
using Gauss’s law is identical to the one obtained using Coulomb’s law.
 Determination of Field due to a
Uniformly Charged Sphere
Consider a sphere of radius a with uniform volume charge density of
C/m3. The electric flux density can be determined by constructing
Gaussian surfaces for cases and separately as shown in
Fig. 4 (a) and (b).
Since the charge has spherical
symmetry, it is obvious that a
spherical surface is an
appropriate Gaussian surface.

Fig. 4 Gaussian surface for a uniformly charged sphere

when (a) and (b)
In Vector form,
 The variation of magnitude of over
the radius r for a uniformly charged
sphere is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Variation of over the radius r for a uniformly charged sphere

 Determination of Field due to a
Spherical Shell of Charge
Consider a spherical shell of radius a with uniform distribution of charge
over its entire surface as shown in Fig. 6 and it has a surface charge
density C/m2.

The electric flux density and electric field intensity can be

determined using Gauss’s law by constructing Gaussian surfaces for
cases r > a and r < a separately as shown in Fig. 6 (a) and (b).

Fig. 6 Gaussian surface for a spherical shell of charge when (a) r > a and (b) r < a
Let r be the distance from the center of the spherical shell to the point P at
which
and have to be determined using Gauss’s law.
Case (i): Point P outside the shell (r > a) Fig. 6 (a)
The electric flux density is also directed radially outwards at point P
and has component only in direction such that

Assume the differential surface area ds at P is normal to direction

and hence, in spherical coordinate system, can be written as
 In Vector form,

Therefore, for r > a, electric field intensity

is inversely proportional to the square of the
distance from the origin.
Special case: Point P on the shell (r = a)
On the shell, Gaussian surface is same as the shell itself and the electric
field intensity can be obtained by substituting r = a in the above
equation.

Case (ii): Point P inside the shell (r < a) Fig. 6 (b)

The Gaussian surface, passing through the point P is again a spherical
surface with radius r < a.

From Fig. 6 (b), it can be seen that the entire charge is on the surface
and no charge is enclosed by the spherical shell. Hence, in this case,
the Gaussian surface has no charge enclosed in it and the total charge
enclosed is zero, irrespective of any charges present outside.

Therefore, from Gauss’s law,

As the total charge enclosed inside the spherical shell is zero, the
electric flux density and field intensity should also be zero.

Hence, the electric field intensity due to a spherical shell in free space
is expressed by

Fig. 7 Variation of vs r for a spherical shell

The variation of magnitude of vs the radial distance r measured from

the origin
is shown in Fig. 7.
 Problem

1. A spherical charge distribution

exists in free space in the region 0 <
𝑟2
𝑟 < 𝑎 given by 𝜌 𝑟 = 𝜌0 1 −
𝑎2
a) Find the total charge
b) Determine electric Field everywhere
using Gauss’s law.