Lecture: 9

Electrostatics – I
Dr. Yogesh Kumar Choukiker

School of Electronics Science Engineering

Microwave and Photonics Division
VIT University, Vellore, India
 What is Electricity ???
Electricity is a form of energy due to accumulation of charged particles (Electrons,
Protons), which is then referred as Static Electricity (eg. energy stored on a
capacitor) or a form of energy due to flow of charged particles (current) in which
case it is referred as Dynamic Electricity (eg. Transformer)

Types of Electric Charge and their Properties

1. Charge comes in two varieties, ‘+’ and ‘-’ which tend to cancel each other so
that bulk materials we have are electrically neutral. If not for this we would have
been experiencing enormous forces on us.

2. Charge is conserved. Charge can neither be created nor destroyed. The total
charge of the universe is constant. A positive charge can annihilate an equal
negative charge but it cannot disappear by itself.
3. Charge is quantized. Charge can come only in integral multiples. (eg. Charge of
an electron is –e , that of proton is +e and carbon nucleus is +6e etc) Hence charge
comes as ne, where n =  1, 2, 3, 4………
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 Force Due to Electric Charge
What is the force exerted on a test charge Q by source charges
 If we have a single source charge q or a group of source charges q1, q2, q3 ….. qN
and we want to observe their effect on test charge Q

 To find the solution we consider the Principle of Superposition, which states that the
interaction between any two charges is completely unaffected by the presence of
other charges.
 If F1 is the force on Q due to q1, F2 is the force on Q due to q2, and FN due to qN. The
total Force on Q is F = F1 + F2 +……FN

q1 Q Q

Test Charge
qN r

q2
Source Charges q 2
 Coulomb’s Law
 Coulomb’s law, like Newton’s law of gravitation, involves the concept of action at a
distance
 These laws state how the particles or bodies interact but fail to provide an
explanation on the mechanism by which the force is transmitted from one point to
other
 Coulomb’s Law gives a qualitative description of the interaction between
charged particles

 Coulomb determined the force law for electrostatics

by a torsion balance experiment, where a metal
coated ball was attached to one end of an insulating
rod. The ball was charged to a known static
electricity and another ball of same charge was
brought near it. The turning of the rod was recorded
by a scale. From the angle of turning, he found the
inverse square law.
Coulomb’s Law
Coulomb’s law, can be mathematically written as
1 qQ kqQ kqQ
F   2 In vector form it is written as F  rˆ
4 0 r 2
r r 2

1
where k   9 109 m/F,  0  8.854 10 12 F/m (Permittivity of
4 0 free space)
1 Coulomb or 1 C = 61018 electrons or
charge of one electron 1 e or 1q = 1.601910-19 C

 The force between the charges q and Q is along the line joining them
 The force is directly proportional to the product of the charges
 Inversely proportional to the square of the distance r between them.
Beware of the units in other texts – We however follow only SI
SI (mks) Gaussian (cgs) Heaviside-Lorentz
1 qQ qQ 1 qQ
F rˆ F  2 rˆ F rˆ
4 0 r 2
r 4 r 2
4
Coulomb’s Law
From Coulomb’s law FQq q
r = R - r’
Q
1qQ
FqQ  ar
4 0 r 2 FqQ
r’
R
where rˆ  R  r ' , r  R  r '
rˆ
ar 
r Origin

FQq  FqQ  ar    FqQ

F
kq1Q
R  r1   kq2Q
R  r2   ...  kq N Q
R  rN 
R  r1 R  r2 R  rN
3 3 3

N
qi R  ri 
F  kQ   For the case of N source charges and one
R  ri
3 5
i 1 test charge Q
 Electric Fields
How does a particle sense the presence of the other ?
 It should be noticed that the particle isn’t physically impacting with
other particles in order to interact with them

 The electric charge creates a field in the space around it. A second charged particle
does not interact directly with the first, but it responds to whatever field it
encounters. This field (electric) acts as a medium or intermediary between the
particles

 Mathematically electric field intensity or electric field strength can be

defined as force per unit charge placed at that point measured in N/C
(newtons/coulomb) or volts/meter

F 1 q  R  r '
E   Electric field intensity at point R due
Q 4 0 R  r ' 3 to a charge q located at r’
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Try This
1. Point charges 5 nC and -2 nC are located at (2,0,4) and (-3,0,5)
respectively
(a) Determine the force on a 1 nC point charge located at
(1,-3,7)
(b) Find the electric field at (1,-3,7)

2. Twelve equal charges q are situated at the corners of a regular 12-

sided polygon (consider as twelve points on clock). What is the net force
on a test charge Q at the centre ? Suppose the charge at position 6 o’ clock
is removed, what is the force on Q ?

3. Find the electric field at a distance z above the midpoint between two
equal charges q, which are a distance d apart ? What if z>>d ? What if the
charge on right is –q ?
P
q z q
7
d/2 d/2