Electric Charge and
contains the protons (positively having an overall negative
Coulomb's Law
ELECTROSTATICS
▪ The study of all phenomena
associated with electric charges
at rest.
▪ Electric charge comes in two
variables: positive and negative.
▪ Unit: Coulomb (C)
▪ The elementary charge (e) is 1.6 x
10-19C.
▪ Opposite charges attract, like
charges repel
STRUCTURE OF AN ATOM
ATOM
▪ Smallest unit into which matter
can be divided without the
release of electrically charged
particles.
▪ Smallest unit of matter that has
the characteristic properties of a
chemical element.
▪ Atoms consist of three basic
particles: protons, electrons, and
neutrons.
▪ The nucleus (center) of the atom ▪ When we talk about an object
charge) and the neutrons (no
charge).
▪ The outermost regions of the
atom are called electron shells
and contain the electrons
(negatively charged).
▪ The net electric charge of the
atom is 0.
▪ In solid materials, protons stay
fixed, but some electrons are free
to move around.
▪ These moving electrons are
called free electrons.
▪ Free electrons reside in an atom’s
outer shell as valence electrons
and are easily plucked off and
carried around, when acted upon
by an outside force.
▪ Materials that are conductors,
like copper, let free electrons
move freely throughout the solid,
while insulators, like wood, hold
on to them tightly, limiting their
flow.
WHAT CAUSES THESE CHARGED PARTICLES TO
MOVE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
▪ The answer is an imbalance of
electrical charge, when some
part of an object has a different
number of free electrons than
another part.
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charge, we mean that it has too
many electrons. And when we
talk about an object having an
overall positive charge, we mean
it’s missing free electrons.
▪ This imbalance can be created
and resolved in lots of different
ways. Say you have a glass rod
that’s electrically neutral, and you
rub it with a cloth. That physical
interaction causes electrons to
hop onto the cloth, leaving the
rod with an overall positive
charge. This is called charging by
friction. When the two objects
touched, charges moved between
them.
▪ Say you bring a positively
charged rod close to a metal
conductive rod. Then, the
electrons in part of the metal rod
will be drawn towards the
positive rod. Now, the side with
more electrons has a negative
charge, leaving the other side of
the rod with fewer electrons and
a positive charge. We’ve polarized
the metal rod. (Polarization)
We’ve redistributed the charge in
order to create an imbalance of
charge within an object, an object
that’s still electrically neutral.
▪ Now, imagine that we slice the
metal rod right down the center.
It still hasn’t touched the positive
rod, but since we split it while an
imbalance was present, we’re left
with one positive side and one
negative side. This process is
known as charging by induction –
creating a net charge without
contacting another object.
▪ If a charged object is connected
to a much larger neutral
conducting object, then the net
charge gets redistributed so that
the smaller object loses most of
its net charge.
▪ The Earth’s surface is a fairly
good conductor in most places,
and, for our purposes, it can be
considered neutral. So,
connecting a charged object to
the ground creates a way for the
charge to leak into the Earth,
rendering the object electrically
neutral. This is known as
grounding
▪ (Grounding) We bring a negatively
charged rod close to our neutral
one. The neutral rod becomes
polarized, with a net positive
charge close to the charged rod
and a negative charge on the
opposite side. But if we ground
the metal rod, the negative
charges repelled by the charged
rod now have a place to go: the
Earth. The negative charges
scurry away, leaving the metal
rod with an overall positive
charge. Now, if we sever the
connection to the ground, our rod
remains positively charged. This
process required no contact
between the rods, only a
connection to the ground.
LAW OF CONSERVATION OF ELECTRIC CHARGE
▪ It says that you can never create
a net electric charge. Instead,
change can only move from one
place to another.
COULOMB'S LAW
▪ One electron has a charge of
negative 1.6 times 10 to the
negative 19th Coulombs. That
means there are 6.24 times 10 to
the 18th electrons for every
negative Coulomb. This value –
the charge of a single electron in
Coulombs – is known as the
elementary charge, and it’s
denoted with a lowercase “e”.
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▪ Our equation here states that the
force between two charged
particles is equal to the product
of the two charges, divided by the
distance between them squared.
And the distance is squared
because, just like gravitation,
when the distance between
objects doubles, the force
between them reduces to a
quarter of the original value. And,
also as with gravitation, this force
has its own proportionality
constant. It’s labeled lower-case
k, and its value depends on the
medium that surrounds the
charges.
▪ The vast majority of the time, the
medium you’ll be working with
will just be the air, or possibly a
vacuum. And in both cases the
constant is 9 times 10 to the ninth
Coulombs. So when you multiply
the rest of the expression by k,
that gives the result in terms of
Newtons. This whole expression
is known as Coulomb’s Law. And
 k is often known as the Coulomb’s
Law constant.
▪ Coulomb’s law states that the
magnitude of the electrical force
between two charged particles is
directly proportional to the
product of the magnitudes of the
charges and inversely
proportional to the square of the
distance between them.
SUPERPOSITION PRINCIPLE
▪ The superposition principle states
that each charge will exert a
force on another charge as if no
other charges are present.
▪ The total force that a particular
charge experiences due to a
collection of charges is the vector
sum of all the individual forces.
Electric Field
ELECTRIC FIELD
▪ Is the space surrounding a
charged body.
▪ Causes any charged particle
placed in it to experience an
electric force.
▪ British scientist Michael
Faraday hypothesized that every
charged object generates an
electric field that permeates
space and exerts a force on all
charged particles it encounters.
▪ The electric field created by a
charged object is the electric
force between the objects and the
test charge divided by the
magnitude of that test charge. To
find F, you just have to use
Coulomb's Law. And you only
need to know the value for big Q,
the point charge.
▪ Electric field lines - purpose is to
show the magnitude and direction
of the force exerted on any
nearby positive test charge.
▪ The density of these field lines
signifies the magnitude of the
electric force on small q and the
closer small q is to big Q, the
greater the force.
▪ The electric field line diagram for
a fixed Q that's negatively
charged would look like that of a
positive Q, but with arrows
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pointing inward to signify that
positive test charges would be
attracted to Q.
▪ We have one positively charged
particle and one negatively
charged particle that are some
distance apart with an equal and
opposite magnitude of charge.
This pair of particle is known as
an electric dipole. Since we have
two particles that each generate
their own electric field, we can
add the fields together to create a
total electric field. This is the
principle known as superposition.
4 IMPORTANT PROPERTIES OF ELECTRIC
FIELD LINES
1. The field lines must be tangent to
the direction of the field at any
point.
▪ This means if we place a positive
test charge anywhere the field
lines will point in the direction of
the force exerted on a positive
test charge.
▪ This also means that a negative
test charge would feel a force in
the exact opposite direction.
2. The greater the line density, the
greater the magnitude of the
field.
▪ As a test charge moves closer to
one of the fixed charges, the
forces on it will be larger, thus
the greater number of lines in
that area.
▪ All of this together means that
the number of lines leaving a
charged object is proportional to
the magnitude of its charge.
▪ If the magnitude of the positive
charge in our electric dipole is
doubled, then twice as many lines
leave the positive point charge.
3. The lines always start from
positively charged objects and
end on negatively charged
objects.
▪ And if there are no negatively
charged objects around, then the
lines just keep going on forever
into infinity, seeking out
negatively charged objects
wherever they can find them.
▪ So in our electric dipole the lines
start at the positively charged
particle and move toward the
negatively charged one.
▪ And the same number of lines
come out of each particle
because the magnitude of their
charges is equal and opposite.
4. The lines must never cross.
▪ Criss-crossing lines means the
field acts in different directions
for charges in the same which is
impossible.
▪ Let's say we want to create an
electric field where all positive
test charges move uniformly in a
single direction. We can model
this as a field created by two
infinitely large conductive plates
one positive, and one negative. All
positive test charges between the
plates would move from the
positive plate to the negative
plate. So we construct the
electric field as a series of lines
moving from the positive plate to
the negative one. This pair of
plates is known as a capacitor
and is an integral part of almost
every electronic system partly
because it can use its electronic
field to store an electric charge.
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Can an electric field exist in a conductor, where
electrons can move around freely in the
material?
▪ To figure this out, let's imagine we
have a conductive sphere with a
net negative charge meaning it
has too many free electrons.
These extra free electrons want
to move as far away from one
another as possible. This means
they redistribute themselves on
the surface of the sphere. When
they do, they've reached
electrostatic equilibrium. In this
state, the excess charges have
moved as far as possible to
reduce their forces on one
another. Once these free charges
are at equilibrium, their
acceleration is zero, which means
that there are no longer any net
forces acting on them. And since
the electric field represents
electric forces acting on nearby
charges, when the net forces are
zero, the electric field must also
be zero.

So what do these observations tell us?
▪ Well for one thing, it shows that
the electric field inside
conductors is always zero when
the system is in electrostatic
equilibrium. And it also shows
that the net charge is distributed
on the surface. These conditions
hold true for all conducive
materials. While the electric field
inside the material is zero, an
electric field exists outside the
surface of the conductor.
What if we take a neutral conductive sphere,
hollow out the inside, and stick a positively
charged particle in the center?
▪ The positive charge inside the
sphere attracts the negative
charges inside the shell while it's
pushing the positive charges to
the surface of the sphere. Once
the system is at electrostatic
equilibrium, the observations we
made before still hold true. The
charges stop moving, so no
electric field exists inside the
shell. Now the inside of the shell
has a net negative charge due to
the attraction of the central
positive particle leaving the outer
shell with a net positive charge.
So an electric field is generated
from the outside of the shell,
because of the net positive
charge. And while no field exists
inside the shell, there is an
electric field between that
particle in the center and the
inside surface. Any positive test
charges in the region would
follow the field lines and be
pushed toward the negative
interior of the shell.
ELECTRIC FIELD DUE TO A POINT CHARGE
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▪ An electric field exists in the
region of space around a charged
object or a source charge.
▪ When another charged object
enters this electric field, it will
experience an electric force.
▪ The strength of the electric field
at a point due to the source
charge is called electric field
intensity.
▪ Electric field is defined as the
force that a test charge will
experience when placed at that
point.
▪ Physicists use a unit positive
charge as the test charge in
defining an electric field.
▪ The electric field produced by a
point source charge q can be
obtained using Coulomb's law.
ELECTRIC FLUX
▪ Electric field can be quantitatively
described using the concept of
electric flux.
▪ Electric flux (Φ) is a measure of
the number of field lines passing
through a surface.
▪ Mathematically, electric flux is
the dot product of the electric
field and area vector. The
direction of the area vector is the
 same as that of a vector
perpendicular to the area.
Φ = E • A = EA cos θ
where θ is the angle between the electric
field and the area vector. Note that
electric flux is scalar and has the unit of
N.m2/C.
GAUSS'S LAW
▪ Carl Friedrich Gauss, a German
scientist, formulated a law, which
relates electric field, electric flux,
and electric charge.
▪ This is known as Gauss's law
which states that the total
electric flux through a surface is
the total electric charge qtotal
inside the surface divided by €o.
▪ The constant €o, is called the
permittivity of free space and has
an approximate value of 8.85 x10-
C /N·m2.
12 2
▪ The surface mentioned in Gauss's
law is called the Gaussian
surface. Since a line of force
starts from a positive charge to a
negative charge, the lines going
out of the surface is considered
positive, while the lines going into
the surface is negative.
Charge Distribution and Gauss's Law
▪ Gauss's law can be used to
compute the electric field due to
a system of point charges as well
as for a continuous charge
distribution.
▪ In practice, the charge
distribution must be uniform and
symmetrical.
▪ The charge distribution may be
expressed in terms of linear
charge density, surface charge
density, or volume charge
density.
▪ Linear charge density λ is charge
per unit length, surface charge
density σ is charge per surface
area, and volume charge density
ρ is charge per unit volume of