BDPHO Camp - Electrodynamics

Ahmed Saad Sabit

June 9, 2021

1 Point Charges: Coulomb’s Law

The coloumbs law in vector form,
1 q1 q2
F~12 = rˆ12
4π0 r2

By the term F~12 I mean that the force applied on 1-th charge by 2-th. By the

q2

r̂12
q1

F~12

Figure 1: Two charges interaction

r̂12 I mean the position of charge 1-th with respect to the 2-th, in unit vector.
Now, this law of F = k qr1 q22 in scalar form is only for Point Charges. For
charge with a shape that is not Point like, we have to be careful. The force

1
equation can be written as,
 q 
2
F~12 = k 2 r̂12 q1
r
1
Here I assume k = 4π 0
. Now, considering the bracket portion, it has no depen-
dence on 1-th charge, execpt the position, so, we can assume it as,

F~12 = E
~ (~r) q1

Thus,
F~ = E (~r) q
~ which is a vector field and dependent
We introduce the idea of electric field E
~
on the position ~r hence, E (~r).

2 Gauss’s Law
Assume a closed surface, name it as Γ, by closed, we mean there is no hole in
~ · dA,
it. It encloses a chareg, say q. Now, let us consider the dot product E ~ on
a single point on the surface.

~
dA
~
E

Figure 2: Gauss’s Law on closed surface

~ A
Add up the contribution of all small E·d ~ for all points on the closed surface.
Note, the closed shape can be any shape, it’s fine until it’s closed.

2
 By the sentence adding up all the contribution, what I really mean is,
X
~ · dA
E ~=φ
Γ

~ → 0, we
We have to add the quantity for all points on the shape. Because dA
have, Z
E~ · dA
~=φ
Γ
R
By the integral named Γ what we mean is we integrate the quanitity over all
the points on the shape.
~ · dA~ is equal and,
R
Gauss’s Law: For any shape Γ, the quantity Γ E
Z
~= q
~ · dA
E
0
Where q is the charge enclosed within the surface.
The take
R away is, qif you can make a surface that encloses some charge, the
quantity E ~ · dA
~=
0 for all cases. We say this quanitity as “Flux”.

2.1 Dot product review

For any two vector ~a and ~b, the dot product ha|bi or ~a · ~b is shown by,

~a · ~b = |~a||~b| cos θ = ab cos θ

In other parts of physics, some even call it as “Inner Product” in R3 vector

space.
Now we hang around with parts of EM where the charge is not a point charge
and use the Gauss’s Law for measuring important things.

3 Gauss’s Law: Electric Field by a Point charge

Let there be a point charge q. What is the electric field at a distance r
from teh charge?
Using Gauss’s Law, we can solve this pretty quickly, imagine the q charge
being center of a Gaussian Surface (closed surface), which is a perfect sphere
shape.
At every point of a sphere, the electric field has to be the same, because of
symmetry and also the idea that Field from a point charge should be radially
symmteric and only dependent on the distance. Hence,
Now, let us calculate the total flux isolate E from it, note that the E is a
vector and is Radially directed. For this,
Z Z Z
~ · dA
~ = EdA cos θ = E dA = E 4πr2


E

Here, cos θ = 1 for all cases because every position on the sphere is such that
the dA~ and E~ are parallel. Hence we assume this cos θ = 1 ( as θ = 0 for all

3
 ~a

~b

Figure 3: dot prod

R
case), and E is definitely constant for all the time. Again, dA means that we
need to add up all the small bits of area into the complete surface area. And
the complete surface area is just 4πr2 , thus, using the Gauss’s Law,
q
4πr2 E =
0
This solves to,
1 q
E=
4π0 r2
Noting that E is a vector that is radially directed,

~ = 1 q
E r̂
4π0 r2
Here, r is the distance from the center of the point charge to the position where
we want to calculate the Electric field. And r̂ is the unit vector in the direction.

4 Gauss’s Law: Infinite Line of Charge

Suppose there is charged piece of wire that extends to infinity, What is the
Electric field at a distance h from the wire perpendicular to it?
We shall assume that the charge per unit length is λ. This means, that a
length ∆l of the wire contains total ∆q = λ∆l amount of charge.

4
 ~
dA

~
E

Figure 4: Electric field from Point Charge

From common sense, we can guess what the electric field would look like at
a distance h from the wire (perp to it), drawing a diagram, Let us build up a
surface around it, it be a cylinder, why? Because if we consider a cyclinder,
then on all points on the surface of the cylinder (expect the caps), the electric
field would be constant.
Note, the electric field is perpendicular to the charged line, hence, there is
no horizontal component of the field.
The flux, Z Z
EdA = E dA = E (2πh∆l)

The total charge enclosed,

q = ∆lλ
Using gauss’s law,
(∆lλ)
E (2πh∆l) =
0
Solving this,
λ
E=
2πh0
This is the answer.

5
 ~
E

λ
→ −∞ →∞

∆l

Figure 5: Line charge, we also view that Electric Field is symmteric radially (by
the picture in the lower left). And the Surface we assume is drawn at the lower
right.

5 Gauss’s Law: Field inside a Solid Spherical

Charge
Let there be a charge Q, which has a shape of a Solid Sphere and has radius R.
What is the Electric Field inside and outside the sphere?
Consider the charge density to be ρ, that means,
 
4 3
Q= πR ρ
3

Now consider a Gaussian (closed) surface of radius r inside the solid spherical
charge (r < R), total charge containted by it,
 
4 3
q=ρ πr
3

The electric field will be Radially symmteric (because the charge inside r radius
surface is a sphere, hence symmtry), so,
Z
ρ 4 3
E dA = E 4πr2 =


πr
0 3

6
 ρr
E=
30
Solving for ρ from the first equation we found in this section,
 
1 Q
E= (r)
0 4πR3

1 Qr
E=
4π0 R3
The field outside won’t be too different, using the same argument we did
for the point charge in Section 3, the answer for r > R, (field outside the R
spherical Charge) is,
1 Q
E=
4π0 r2