L2:

Coulomb’s Law and Electrostatics

Pre-Reading:
Ch 1.5, 2.1
 Announcements
• Homework 1 on Canvas, due on gradescope
by Friday, Sept 22 midnight.
• Tutorials start TODAY!
• One answer sheet per group of five max,
“reporter” uploads pdf to gradescope by
Thursday 6pm!
• Office hours:
Prof. Rottler Wed 3-4pm, Brimacombe 261A
Shadab Ahamed Thur 1-2pm, Hebb drop-in
centre
 Today
LAST TIME: Practice Problem Solving with Charge
Integrals in Various Coordinate Systems

TODAY:
• Coulomb's Law
• Separation vector
• The Electric Field
• Continuous Charge Distributions
Clicker question:

Two charges +Q and -Q are fixed a

distance r apart. The direction of the
force on a test charge -q at A is…
y
A.Up +Q
B.Down o
60
r

C.Left r 30o .A x
D.Right
r
E.Some other direction,
-Q
or F =0
Clicker question:

Two charges +q and -q are on the y-axis,

symmetric about the origin. Point A is an
empty point in space on the x-axis. The
direction of the E field at A is…
y
+q
A. Up
B. Down A
x
C.Left
D.Right -q

E. Some other direction, or E = 0, or ambiguous

Expression for the electric field of point charges:

Two charges +q and -q are on the y-axis,

symmetric about the origin. Point A is an
empty point in space on the x-axis. The
direction of the E field at A is… y
+q
A. Up
B. Down A
x
C.Left
D.Right -q

E. Some other direction, or E = 0, or ambiguous

 
How is the vector Â12 related to r1 and r2?

Â12
r1   
r2 A) Â12 = r1 + r2
  
B) Â12 = r1 - r2
  
C) Â12 = r2 - r1
D) None of these
 Coulomb's law:

In the fig, q1 and q2 are 2 m apart.

Which arrow can represent ˆ ?
Â12
A
q1 q2
B C
D) More than one (or NONE) of the above
E) You can't decide until you know if q1 and q2
are the same or opposite signed charges
2.2

What is Â̂1 ("from 1 to the point r") here?


r1=(x1,y1) Â1 = r - r1 -q
+q  r=(x,y)
ˆ A = A/| A |
A) (x - x1 , y - y1 ) B) (x1 - x, y1 - y)

(x - x1 , y - y1 )
C)
(x - x ) + (y - y )
2 2
1 1
(x1 - x, y1 - y)
D)
(x - x ) + (y - y )
2 2
1 1

E) None of these
2.5

5 charges, q, are arranged in a

regular pentagon, as shown.
What is the E field at the center?
q

q q

A) Zero q q
B) Non-zero
C) Really need trig and a calculator to
decide
2.5

5 charges, q, are arranged in a

regular pentagon, as shown.
What is the E field at the center?
q

q q

A) Zero
B) Non-zero q q
C) Really need trig and a calculator to decide
If it was not zero, it would point in some direction. But if you tilted
your head 1/5 of the way around, the charges would be the same,
but the answer would now point in a DIFFERENT direction... so it
can’t point any direction at all
2.6

1 of the 5 charges has been removed, as

shown. What is the E field at the center?

a q +y
q

A) +(kq/a2) q +x
q
B) -(kq/a2)
C) 0
D) Something entirely different!
E) This is a nasty problem which I need more
time to solve
 Continuous Charges

Electric field based on

Coulomb’s Law for discrete
charges:
 Continuous Charges

Coulomb's law to calculate the electric field for a uniform

(a) line charge (b) surface charge (c) volume charge.
dq ® l dl ' ~ s da' ~ r dt '
• Primed
coordinates
are property of
the source.
• r vector
corresponds
to field point
• Script R points
from the
source to the
field point
Find the x-component of the electric field at point P
from a charged rod, linear charge density l

y Strategy:

1. Draw picture & coordinate system

Identify variables
1 1 ˆ
E=
4pe0
ò 2
 ldl'
Â
x
P=(x,0,0) 2. Draw differential source (dl’, da’, dτ’)-
Find R (by thinking about field point,
source point)
3. Compute the integral
 CLICKER: To find the E- field at P=(x,y,z) from a
thin line (uniform linear charge density l):
1 1 ˆ
E=
4pe0
ò 2
 ldl'
Â
 y
What is Â= Â ?

dl' 
Â
A) X B) y' r'
x
C) dl ' + x
2 2 D) x + y'
2 2
r P=(x,0,0)

E) Something completely different!!

  l dl' 
E(r ) = ò 3
Â
y
4 pe0Â

dl' 
r'= Â
(0,y',0)
x
r P=(x,0,0)
  l dl'  l
E(r ) = ò 3
 ,so E x (x, 0, 0) =
4pe 0
ò …
4 pe0Â
dy' x
A) ò
y
3
x
dy' x 
B) ò 2 dl'
Â
(x + y' )
2 3/2 r'=
(0,y',0)
dy' y'
C) ò
x
3 r P=(x,0,0)
x
dy' y'
D) ò 2 E) Something else
(x + y' )
2 3/2
E-field integral:
y

dl' 
r'= Â
(0,y',0)
x
r P=(x,0,0)

(See also video on Canvas)

 Evaluate the integral

dy' x
E x (x, 0, 0) = ò (x + y' )
2 2 3/2

See video on Canvas

The electric field a distance z from a line
segment with charge density l reads:
(0,0,z)
 1 2l L
E= k̂
4pe 0 z z + L
2 2 x
-L +L
What is the approx. form for E if z>>L?
2l L
E= × (...)
4pe 0
A) 0 B) 1 C) 1/z D) 1/z2
E) None of these is remotely correct.
The electric field a distance z from a line
segment with charge density l reads:
(0,0,z)
 1 2l L
E= k̂
4pe 0 z z + L
2 2 x
-L +L
What is the approx. form for E when you
get really close to the line (z<<L)?
2l
E= × (...)
4 pe 0
A) 0 B) 1 C) 1/z D) 1/z2
E) None of these is remotely correct.
 More Coulomb Integrals
Set up the integral to find the electric field a distance z above
the center of spherical surface of radius a that carries a uniform
surface charge σ. Hint: Use the law of cosines to write script R
in terms of a and θ
P
1. Draw a picture
z 2. Draw the differential source: dl’, da’, dτ’
3. Draw the three r vectors: r (field point),
r’ (source point), script r
4. Write down r and r’ in terms of the
a coordinate system and unit vectors.
5. Calculate r, r’, script r
σ 6. Write dl’, da’, or dτ’.
7. Write down the integral.

10 min