TOPIC 1: ELECTRIC FIELD

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 Electric charge
• All matter is composed of atoms
• Atoms themselves are composed of
fundamental particles
Electrons: negatively charged
 Protons: positively charged
Neutrons: electrically neutral

• Electric charge is measured in Coulombs (C)

• What’s the charge of an electron? qelectron = 1.6  1019 C
• And of a proton?
qproton = 1.6  1019 C
• We use the letter “q” (in capital or lower case) to indicate electric charge
• Types of charges (+) ()
• Conservation of charge
• Charge is quantized q = ne
Spectacular effects of charge imbalances in nature

Caused by ELECTRIC FIELDS

Simple experiments with charged objects

“small” spherical objects with NET CHARGE

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (18th century)

 Coulomb’s Law.
Magnitude of the force exerted by
one point charge on another
(when charges are located in a vacuum)

q2 q1q 2
q1 d FK 2
d
Coulomb’s Law

K  9  109 Nm2/C2 Coulomb’s constant

If q1 and q2 have the same sign
e.g. both positive or both negative


q2 F2
q1 d

F1 REPULSION
 
F1 = F2 Newton’s 3rd Law
 If q1 and q2 have opposite signs
e.g. one positive and the other negative (or viceversa)


F1
 q2
q1 F2
ATTRACTION
 
F1 = F2 Newton’s 3rd Law
A vectorial form for the electric force between
two charges (given their position vectors)

q1q 2 q1q 2 r2  r1
F2  K 2 u12  K 3 r12  Kq1q 2 3
r12 r12 r2  r1
1.2.- The point charges +q, +q, and 2q are positioned at
the vertices A, B and C, respectively, of an equilateral
triangle (see figure). Determine: a) The force (as a vector)
exerted by these charges on a fourth charge, +q, positioned
at the center of the triangle. b) The value and position of a
fifth charge necessary to cancel the previous force, if this
fifth charge can only be positioned at a distance d (triangle
side length) from the triangle center.
SOLUTION:
q2  3 1 
a) F = 9K 2  i  j N b) q  = 9q or q  = 9q
d  2 2 
 Electric Field: a way to explain
“action at a distance”
• Every point charge creates an electric field around itself
• extending over all space but stronger the closer to the charge
• An electric charge q2 that enters into the electric field of
charge q1 will experience a force due to the field.
• The magnitude and direction of the field (like the force)
depend on the location with respect to q1
The electric field due to a charge q at a position in
space (at a distance from q) is defined as the
electric force exerted on a test charge (qo)
divided by the value of the test charge

F
E=
qo
Units: N/C or V/m
Since we know the expression for the force
(from Coulomb’s Law), the formula for the
electric field from a point charge q is:

q
E  K 2 ur
r
 Comparison of the electric fields created by
(isolated) positive and negative point charges
 PRINCIPLE OF SUPERPOSITION
(applied to electric fields)
Example: an electric dipole

In general, we say that

electric field lines:
• begin at positive charges
• end at negative charges
The direction of the field (of “the vector”) at
each position in space is tangential to a field line
Calculation of total electric field from a general
distribution of point charges
n
qi
E = E1  E 2  ....  E n  K  2 u ri
i 1 ri
1.9.-
 Solution of part (c) of exercise 1.9.

Etot = E1 + E2 + E3 + E4
E2 E1
|E1|= |E2|
E3 o E4
y
The components in x of the vectors
E1 and E2 cancel each other
x
The components in y of the
vectors E1 and E2 are equal: E1,y= E2,y

E1 + E2 Etot =
E3 = E4

E3 + E4
NEGATIVE
Calculation of electric field due to a continuous
charge distribution … in different dimensions

 The charge density (,  or ) can

be uniform or depend on position
1.10.-
 The concept of the “flux” of an electric field:
electric flux

Example: uniform E field and flat surface



General case: non-uniform E and curved surface

 


¿What is the flux of the uniform electric field
through each ficticious surface?
Gauss’s Law: a method we use to calculate
the E field from certain charge distributions
“The total electric flux through
a closed (“Gaussian”) surface
is proportional to the total
charge inside the surface”
Independent of the existence of
external charges
Gauss’s Law

Permittivity of

 free space

0 = 8.85  1012 C2/(Nm2)

 Calculation of several fields using Gauss’s law.
Example 1: Uniform and spherical charge distribution
Results of calculation:
r>R
Q
E=K 2
r

r=R
Q Q
EK 2 VK
R R

r<R
Q
E=K 3
r
R
Example 2: Uniformly charged flat plane
Results of calculation:

E= i x>0
2 o

E=  i x<0
2 o


E= i
o
1.16

To solve this problem we DON’T apply Gauss’s method directly, since this
circle of the surface is not a “closed” surface.

However, we do apply a result obtained from that method:

The field created by a spherical charge distribution in the

space outside the sphere (r  R) is the same as the field that
would be created by a point charge situated at the same
point as the center of the sphere and of charge equal to that
of the total charge (let’s call it Q) of the distribution.
 Detailed solution to exercise 1.16
circle The field lines
emerge radially from
the center of the sphere
(point “O”)
sphere and pass through the
circular surface forming
an angly  with normal
to the surface O
The value of  depends on the position on the surface:
• The field passes through the center of the circle with  = 0
• The field passes through any point on an infinitesimal ring, of radius

and width , forming an angle determined by  , where r

is the distance from the center of the sphere:
We are going to calculate the total flux by calculating “the
sum” of all the infinitesimal fluxes  corresponding to
all the infinitesimal rings of which the circle is composed

area of ring of radius and

infinitesimal width
 O
The total charge (Q) of the sphere is calculated as:

volume of every infinitesimal spherical shell

(radius and infinitesimal thickness ) of
which the sphere is composed
And writing the
constant K as:
In Physics & Mathematics a “field” is any function
of position
E.g., position (x,y)… in 2D
or, e.g., position (x,y,z)… in 3D

We talk about two types of “fields”:

• SCALAR FIELDS
• VECTOR FIELDS
(e.g. Electric field)
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 For a SCALAR FIELD a NUMBER is assigned to
every point in space:
U = f(x, y, z)

Example 2: electronic density

Example 1: temperature as of brain tissue, (x,y,z)
a function of position in a
country, T(x,y) 41
 Surfaces (or contours) on which all the “numbers” are the
same: EQUISCALAR SURFACES (or contours)

Example: The mountain’s

A mountain. contour map.

The equiscalar surfaces

or contours of an
abstract scalar field, U
 GRADIENT OF SCALAR FIELD

U U U
grad U  i j k
x y z
Evaluated at any given position, it tells us:
• The direction in which the field is changing most rapidly

(and if the position is on an equiscalar surface)

• The normal to the equiscalar surfaces

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 DIRECTIONAL DERIVATIVE OF A SCALAR FIELD
dU
 grad U  u n
dn
• un represents any direction in the field
Evaluated at any given position in the field, it tells us:
• How rapidly the field is changing in the given direction
Evaluated at a position on an equiscalar surface:
• It is maximum in the direction perpendicular to the
surface (i.e., parallel to grad U)
• It is zero in a direction parallel to the surface

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45
For a VECTOR FIELD a NUMBER (“modulus”)
and a DIRECTION are assigned to each point in
space
F = f(x, y, z) = f(r)

Example: wind
pattern near the coast
of Portugal

Example: the
directions of strands
of wheat 46
A vector Field can be created from scalar field:
F = grad U
Two examples: left and right.
Black: high scalar values;
Gray: intermediate values;
White: lowest values.
The vector field (blue arrows)
points in the direction in which
the scalar U increases.

In Physics it is more common to talk about a

Potential field, V:
V = U
F = grad V
This is what we call a conservative vector field. 47
 The line integral of a conservative vector field

C

c
F  dr 

c
grad U  dr 
A
dU  U B  U A

If we move in a loop (start and finish at the same position)…

 
B A

C dU  dU  ( U B  U A )  ( U A  U B )  0
A B

That’s why we call it “conservative”

• In Physics, a CONSERVATIVE field is a vector
field that has an associated potential field.

• In the next topic (Topic 2) we will study the

concept of ELECTRIC POTENTIAL, which is
associated with an Electric Field, and its
relationship to WORK and ENERGY.

•Not all vector fields in Physics are conservative

(e.g. the induced EMF in Topic 8 is associated with
a non-conservative field.)

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