Coulomb’s Law

Dr. Arshad Javid

 Electric Charge

History
600 BC Greeks first discover attractive
properties of amber when rubbed.
1600 AD Electric bodies repel as well as attract
1735 AD du Fay: Two distinct types of electricity
1750 AD Franklin: Positive and Negative Charge
1770 AD Coulomb: “Inverse Square Law”
1890 AD J.J. Thompson: Quantization of
electric charge - “Electron”
 Electric Charge

The Transfer of Charge

SILK

Glass Rod

Some materials attract electrons

more than others.
 Electric Charge

The Transfer of Charge

SILK
+ -

Glass Rod

As the glass rod is rubbed against silk,

electrons are pulled off the glass onto the silk.
 Electric Charge

The Transfer of Charge

SILK
+ -
+ -
Glass Rod

Usually matter is charge neutral, because the number of

electrons and protons are equal. But here the silk has an
excess of electrons and the rod a deficit.
 Electric Charge
The Transfer of Charge

+ SILK
+ - - -
+
+ - -
+
Glass Rod

Glass and silk are insulators:

charges stuck on them stay put.
 Two types of charge:

Positive Charge: A shortage of electrons.

Negative Charge: An excess of electrons.

Conservation of charge – The net charge of a

closed system remains constant.
• All ordinary matter contains both positive and
negative charge.
• You do not usually notice the charge because
most matter contains the exact same number
of positive and negative charges.
• An object is electrically neutral when it has
equal amounts of both types of charge.
 Electric Charge
• Electric charge is a property of tiny particles in atoms.
• The unit of electric charge is the coulomb (C).
• A quantity of charge should always be identified with a
positive or a negative sign.
 Electric Charge

+ +

Two positively charged rods

repel each other.
 Electric Forces

Like Charges - Repel

F F
+ +

Unlike Charges - Attract

F F
- +
The forces between the two kinds of charge can
be observed with an electroscope.
 Charge is quantized
• Banjmin franklins give idea of charge is
quantized. Air , water not continous but
consist of no of atoms molecules. Not
continous. Electrical fluids not continous but
made up of multiple of certain elementary
charge.
Charge is conserved
 Coulomb's Law
The force between two charges gets stronger as the charges
move closer together.
The force also gets stronger if the amount of charge becomes
larger.
 Coulomb's Law

• The force between charges is

inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between
them.
• Doubling the distance reduces the
force by a factor of 22 = (4),
decreasing the force to one-fourth
its original value (1/4).
• This relationship is called an
inverse square law because force
and distance follow an inverse
square relationship.
Coulomb’s Law – Gives the electric force
between two point charges.
q1q2
F k 2 Inverse Square

r Law

k = Coulomb’s Constant = 9.0x109 Nm2/C2

q1 = charge on mass 1
q2 = charge on mass 2
r = the distance between the two charges

The electric force is much stronger than the

gravitational force.
 F  kq1q2 /r 2

b) Units
“Define” coulomb (C) as the quantity of charge that
produces a force of 9 x 109 N on objects 1 m apart.

9  10 N  k(1C) /(1m)
9 2 2

9  10 N  kq1q2 /r
9 2

F  kq1q2 / r 2

 k  9  10 N 9
• For practical reasons, the coulomb is defined using current and magnetism
giving

k = 8.988 x 109 Nm2/C2

• Permittivity of free space

1 q1q2
F
4 0 r 2

1
Then 0   8.84 1012 C 2 /Nm2
4 k


 Coulomb’s Law
q1 q2 F12
r12
r12

kq1 q2 ˆ
F 12  2 r12 Force on 2 due to 1
r12
k = (4pe0)-1 = 9.0 x 109 Nm2/C2
e0 = permitivity of free space
= 8.86 x 10-12 C2/Nm2
Coulomb’s law describes the interaction between bodies due to their charges
d) Superposition of electric forces

Net force is the vector sum of forces from each

charge

q1 F3

q2 F2 F
q
q3 F1

Net force on q: F = F1 + F2 + F3
 Coulomb’s Law
Force from many charges

Q2
-
F41 F21

Q1 +
F31 - Q3

Principle of
+
superposition
Q4 F1  F21  F31  F41
Force on charge is vector sum of
forces from all charges
 Coulomb’s Law

 Superposition
The electric force on one charge due to two or more other charges is the vector sum of
each individual force

 Spherical charge distributions

A spherical distribution of charge, when viewed from outside, behaves the same as an
equivalent charge at the center of the sphere.
6) Electric Field

 F
E
q0
Units: N/C
 Electric Field

 Definition:
The electric field E that exists at a point is the electrostatic force F
experienced by a small test charge q0 placed at that point divided by the
charge itself.
F
E (SI unit:
q0 N/C)

 Direction of electric field

- A positive charge experiences a force in the direction of E
- A negative charge experiences a force in the opposite direction of E
 Electric Field

 Magnitude of the electric charge due to a

point charge
q
Ek 2
r
 Direction:

 If the charge q is
positive, the field points
radically outward

 If the charge q is
negative, the field points
radically inward
Example 1
Two charges are separated by a distance r and have a force
F on each other. qq
F k 1 2
2
r
F q2 F
q1
r

If r is doubled then F is : ¼ of F

If q1 is doubled then F is : 2F

If q1 and q2 are doubled and r is halved then F is : 16F

 m1m2
Fg  G 2
r
(.04)(.04) 13
 6.67  10 11
 4.27 10 N
(0.5) 2

q1q2
FE  k 2
r
6 6
9 (3  10 )(3  10 )
 9.0  10 2
 0.324 N
(0.5)
The electric force is much greater than the
gravitational force
 Gravitational and Electric Forces
in the Hydrogen Atom

M m = 9.1 10-31 kg
r12 -e
+e M = 1.7 10-27 kg
m r12 = 5.3 10-11 m

Gravitational force Electric Force

 Gravitational and Electric Forces
in the Hydrogen Atom

M m = 9.1 10-31 kg
r12 -e M = 1.7 10-27 kg
+e
m r12 = 5.3 10-11 m

Gravitational force Electric Force

 Mm
Fg  G 2 r
r12

Fg = 3.6 10-47 N
 Gravitational and Electric Forces
in the Hydrogen Atom

M m = 9.1 10-31 kg
r12 -e
+e M = 1.7 10-27 kg
m r12 = 5.3 10-11 m

Gravitational force Electric Force

 Mm   1  Qq
Fg  G 2 r Fe    2 r
r12  40  r12

Fg = 3.6 10-47 N Fe = 3.6 10-8N

Example: Coulomb force vs gravity for electrons
m, e m, e
Fg FC

FC = ke2/r2 FN = Gm2/r2

Ratio:
19 2
FC ke 2
(9 10 )(1.6 10 ) N
9
 
FN Gm 2
(6.7 10 -11 )(9.11031) 2 N

 4 10 42
 Fields and forces
• Mass creates a gravitational field that exerts
forces on other masses.
 Fields and forces
• The concept of a field is used to describe any
quantity that has a value for all points in
space.
• You can think of the field as the way forces are
transmitted between objects.
• Charge creates an electric field that creates
forces on other charges.
b) Field due to a point charge
q0 F

Q
r

Qq0
Coulomb’s law: Fk 2
r
Q
Electric Field: E  F /q0  k 2
r r
r
 F
E //  direction is radial
 r kQ
E  2 rˆ
 r
c) Superposition of electric fields

Net field is the vector sum of fields from each charge

q1 E3

q2 E2 E
P
q3 E1

Net field at P: E = E1 + E2 + E3
7) Electric Field Lines (lines of force)

a) Direction of force on positive charge

radial for point charges

out for positive (begin)
in for negative (end)
b) Number of lines proportional to charge

2Q
Q
c) Begin and end only on charges; never cross

E?
d) Line density proportional to field strength
Line density at radius r:

Number of lines N 1
 2  2
area of sphere 4r r

 
Lines of force model <==> inverse-square law
8) Applications of lines-of-force model
a) dipole
b) two positive charges
c) Unequal charges
 d) Infinite plane of charge
+
+ E
+ + Field is uniform and constant to ∞,
+ in both directions
+ +
+
+ +
+ q, A Electric field is proportional to the line
+
density, and therefore to the charge
density, =q/A

By comparison with the 

field from a point charge, E
we find: 2 0
e) Parallel plate capacitor (assume separation small compared to the size)
E+ E+ E+
+ -
+ -
E- E- E-
+ -

EL=0 + E=2E+ - ER=0

+ -
+ -

• Strong uniform field between: E   / 0

• Field zero outside
f) Spherically symmetric charge distribution
• Symmetry ==> radial
• number of lines prop. to charge

+ +
+ Outside the sphere:
+

+ +
r kq
+ +
E  2 rˆ
 r
as though all charge concentrated at the
centre (like gravity)
9) Electric Fields and Conductors
• Excess charge resides on surface
at equilibrium
• Field inside is zero at eq’m;
charges move until |E1| = |E2|

E1 E1
E2