ELECTRIC

FIELDS
Introduction

Soft contact lenses are comfortable

to wear because they attract the
proteins in the wearer’s tears,
incorporating the complex molecules
right into the lenses. They become,
in a sense, part of the wearer. Some
types of makeup exploit this same
attractive force to adhere to the
skin. What is the nature of this
force?
Electric Charges

• “Charge” is a property of
subatomic particles.
• The symbol for CHARGE is “q”
• The unit is the COULOMB (C),
named after Charles
Coulomb.
 Properties of Electric Charges
• Two kinds of charges occur in nature, which were given the names positive
and negative by Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790).
• LIKE charges REPEL and OPPOSITE charges ATTRACT.
Properties of Electric
Charges
• Charge is CONSERVED.
Charge cannot be created or
destroyed only transferred
from one object to another.
Even though these 2 charges
attract initially, they repel after
touching. Notice the NET
charge stays the same.
 • Charge is QUANTIZED.
Properties of In 1909, Robert Millikan (1868–1953)
discovered that electric charge always
Electric Charges occurs as some integral multiple of a
fundamental amount of charge e.

Other experiments showed that:

Particle Charge Mass

Proton +1.6x10-19 C 1.67 x10-27 kg
Electron -1.6x10-19 C 9.11 x10-31 kg
Neutron 0 1.67 x10-27 kg
Coulomb’s Law
• Charles Coulomb (1736–1806) measured the
magnitudes of the electric forces between charged
objects using the torsion balance, which he
invented.
 Coulomb’s Law

Coulomb’s experiments showed that the electric force between two

stationary charged particles
• is inversely proportional to the square of the separation r between the
particles and directed along the line joining them;
• is proportional to the product of the charges q1 and q2 on the two
particles;
• is attractive if the charges are of opposite sign and repulsive if the
charges have the same sign.
 Coulomb’s Law
• The magnitude of the electric force (sometimes called the Coulomb
force) between two point charges:

q1 q2
F1 = -F2 = kC 2
r
1
kC = = 9x10 9 N.m 2 C 2
4pe 0
e0 = 8.8542x10-12 C 2 N.m 2

Where kc is Coulomb constant and ε0 is the permittivity of free space

 Coulomb’s Law
• When more than two charges are present, the resultant force on any
one of them equals the vector sum of the forces exerted by the various
individual charges.
• For example, if four charges are present, then the resultant force
exerted by particles 2, 3, and 4 on particle 1 is

åF = F
1 21 + F31 + F41
Example 1

The electron and proton of a hydrogen atom are separated (on the
average) by a distance of approximately 5.3 x 10-11 m. Find the
magnitude of the electric force between the two particles.
Example 2

Three point charges lie along

the x axis, as shown. The
charges q1 = 15.0 μC is at x
=2.00 m, q2= 6.00 μC is at the
origin, and the resultant force
acting on q3 is zero. What is
the x coordinate of q3?
 Example 3
 Consider three point charges
located at the corners of a right
triangle as shown, where q1 = q3
= 5.0 μC, q2 = 2.0 μC, and a =
0.10 m. Find the magnitude and
direction of the resultant force
exerted on q3.
Electric Fields

• An electric field is a
vector
• Always is in the
direction that a
POSITIVE “test” charge
would move
• The amount of force
PER “test” charge
 Electric Fields
• Consider a point charge q located a
distance r from a test charge q0 located qqo
at a point P. According to Coulomb’s Fe = kC 2
law, the force exerted by q on the test
charge is:
r
• The electric field E at point P is defined
as the amount of force PER “test” Fe q
charge: E = = kC 2
qo r
Electric Fields
• At any point P, the total electric field due to a group
of charges equals the vector sum of the electric fields
of the individual charges.

qi
E = kC å 2
i ri
Example 4
The electron and proton of a hydrogen atom are separated (on
the average) by a distance of approximately 5.3 x 10-11 m. Find
the magnitude and direction of the electric field at the
electron’s position.
Example 5
Two point charges lie along the x axis, as shown. The charges
q1 = 15.0 μC is at x =2.00 m, q2= 6.00 μC is at the origin. Find
the electric field E at a point at x = 5.00 m.
Example 6
 Consider three point charges
located at the corners of a right
triangle as shown, where q1 = q3
= 5.0 μC, q2 = 2.0 μC, and a =
0.10 m. Find the magnitude and
direction of the electric field at
q2.
Electric Potential
• The electric potential created by a point
charge at any distance r from the charge is

q
V = kC
r
• The electric potential resulting from two or
more point charges is

qi
V = kC å
i ri
Electric Potential Energy
• Consider the potential energy of a
system of two charged particles. If
V1 is the electric potential at a
point P due to charge q1, the
potential energy U is equal to the
work to bring a second charge q2
from infinity to P without
q1q2
acceleration. Therefore, we can U = q2V1 = kC
express the potential energy as: r12
Electric Potential Energy
• If more than two charged particles are in the system, we can obtain
the total potential energy by calculating U for every pair of charges
and summing the terms algebraically

æ q1q2 q1q3 q2 q3 ö
U = kC ç + + +... ÷
è r12 r13 r23 ø
Example 7
Sebuah bola dimuati +4,00 x 10-6 C. Hitung:
a. Potensial di titik A yang berjarak 0,200 m dari muatan.
b. Potensial di titik B yang berjarak 0,400 m dari muatan.
c. Beda potensial antara titik A dan B.
Example 8
• Hitung potensial listrik di titik tengah garis hubung antara dua muatan
titik +500 μC dan -200 μC yang terpisah sejauh 500 cm di udara.
• Berapakah usaha untuk membawa muatan +2,5 μC dari titik yang
jauh tak berhingga ke titik tersebut?
Example 9
A charge q1 = 2.00 μC is located at the origin, and a charge q2 = -6.00 μC is
located at (0, 3.00) m.

(a) Find the total electric potential due to these charges at the point P, whose
coordinates are (4.00, 0) m.
(b) Find the change in potential energy of a 3.00-μC charge as it moves from
infinity to point P.
Capacitors and Dielectrics
• Capacitors—devices that store electric charge.
They are used to tune the frequency of radio receivers, as filters in power supplies, to eliminate
sparking in automobile ignition systems, and as energy-storing devices in electronic flash units.
• A capacitor consists of two conductors separated by an insulator. We shall see that the
capacitance of a given capacitor depends on its geometry and on the material — called a
dielectric — that separates the conductors.
 Definition of Capacitance
• The capacitance C of a capacitor is the
ratio of the magnitude of the charge on
either conductor to the magnitude of the
potential difference between them:

Q
Cº
DV
• Capacitance has SI units of coulombs per
volt that is the farad (F).
Definition of Capacitance
The capacitance of a parallel-plate capacitor is proportional to the area
of its plates and inversely proportional to the plate separation.

e0 A
C=
d
e0 = 8.85x10-12 C 2 N.m2

e A ere0 A
C= =
d d
Example 10
• A parallel-plate capacitor has an area 2.00 x 10-4 m2 and a plate
separation d = 1.00 mm. Find its capacitance.
• What is the capacitance for a plate separation of 3.00 mm?
Parallel Combination of Capacitors
• The individual potential difference across capacitors connected in
parallel are the same.
• The equivalent capacitance is
Ceq = C1 + C2 + C3 +...
Series Combination of Capacitors
• The charges on capacitors connected in series are the same.
• The equivalent capacitance is
1 1 1 1
= + + +...
Ceq C1 C2 C3