Basic Electrostatics

Majvell Kay G. Odarve - Vequizo 10/2021

Physics Department, College of Science & Mathematics
MSU-IIT, Iligan City
 Topics
• Electric Charge

• Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges

• Coulomb’s Law

• Electric Field and Electric Forces

• Electric Field Calculations

• Electric Field Lines

• Electric Dipoles

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 Electric Charge and the Structure of Matter
Electrostatics: interaction between electric charges that are at rest.

• Like charges – repel

(positive & positive, negative & negative)

• Opposite charges – attract

(positive & negative)

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 Electric Charge and the Structure of Matter
Structure of atoms: electron (-, negatively charged)
proton (+, positively charged)
neutron (uncharged) } combination of quarks
(± 1/3 e, ±2/3 e
= nucleus

e = electron charge)

• Electrons (-) held within atom by attractive forces from (+) nucleus.

• Protons & neutrons held by an attractive interaction: strong

nuclear force (short range) >> electric repulsion of protons.

• Magnitude of charge of electron = magnitude of charge of proton.

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• Neutral atom: # of electrons = # of protons
• Atomic number: # of protons or electrons in a neutral atom
• Ion: atom that has lost (+) or gained (-) one or more electrons
• Ionization: process of gaining or loosing electrons

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 Principles governing electric charges in nature
1. Principle of Conservation of Charge
The algebraic sum of all electric charges in any closed system is constant
• plastic rod and fur - rod acquires a negative charge of the same magnitude as that of the positive
charge acquired by the fur - the total charge of the two bodies remains constant.
• in any charging process, charges are not created nor destroyed but is merely transferred from one
body to another

2. Quantization of Electric Charge

The magnitude of the charge of the electron (denoted by the symbol e) is a

natural unit of charge.

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 Conductors, Insulators & Induced Charges
1. Conductor: material that permits electric charge to move easily from one region to other. Ex. Cu
2. Insulator: material that does not permit easy movement of charge. Ex: nylon.
3. Semiconductor: electrical properties intermediate between conductors & insulators

Charging via Conduction

-/-Repulsion - / + Attraction

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Charging via Induction
a charged body can give an uncharged body a charge of opposite sign without losing any of its own
charge

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 Uncharged Objects
• A charged object can exert forces on uncharged objects
• Polarization: slight shifting of charge within the molecules of a neutral insulator when a
charged object is placed in its proximity.

The motion of static charges

about a plastic comb and
light bits of paper can cause
attractive forces strong
enough to overcome the
weight of the paper.

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 Principle of superposition of forces
When two charges exert forces simultaneously on a third charge, the
total force acting on that charge is the vector sum of the two forces
that the two charges would exert individually.

+ +...+

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 Electric Field and Electric Forces
Body A, modifies the space (field)
around it because of the charge it
carries.
Body B sense how the space is
modified as a result of the charge it
carries – repulsion is the result
Basic Electrostatics
Any charged body placed in
the vicinity of body A will
sense this electric field and
experience electric force
charged body A produces an electric
field E at any point surrounding, say
point P and a point charge q0 placed at
point P will then experience a force F0
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 Electric Field
• a vector quantity and is defined as the electric force per unit charge
experienced by a test charge at a given point

Note: This definition ignores the force exerted by q 0

on the charge distribution of the object of charge Q.

Definition for future discussions:

a. source point - represents the location of the charge producing the electric field, and
b. field point - represents the point where the electric field is to be determined

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 Electric field of a point charge
• electric field of a point charge q at pointy P located at a
distance r from it is given by:

Unit vector directed from

source point to field point

• In electrostatics, the electric field at every point within the

material of a conductor must be zero

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 • The electric field of a point charge always points away from a (+) charge
but toward a (-) charge.

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 Electric Field Calculations
• Superposition of electric fields (generated by point charges):

+ ++ = + ++

Electric field at P (on q0) generated by point charges q1, q2, q3, …

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 • For a line charge distribution (over a line)
❑
1 𝜆 (𝑟 ) 𝑑𝑙 𝑑𝑞
|𝐸|=
⃗ ∫ 𝑟2 𝜆 ( 𝑟 )=
where is the linear charge density
4 𝜋 𝜀 0 𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑑𝑙

• For a surface charge distribution (over a surface)

❑
1 𝜎 ( 𝑟 ) 𝑑𝐴 𝑑𝑞
|𝐸|=
⃗ ∫ 𝜎 ( 𝑟 )=
where is the surface charge density
𝑑𝐴
4 𝜋 𝜀0 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑟
2

• For a volume charge distribution (inside a volume)

❑
1 𝜌 ( 𝑟 ) 𝑑𝑉 𝑑𝑞
|𝐸|=
⃗ ∫ (𝑟 )=
𝜌where is the volume charge density
4 𝜋 𝜀0 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑟
2 𝑑𝑉

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 Electric Field Lines
• An imaginary line or curve drawn through a region of space such that
its tangent at any point is in the direction of at that point
• Electric field lines are helpful in visualizing electric fields.
a. its direction shows the direction of at each point, and
b. their spacing gives an idea of the strength of the field at a point .
• Electric field lines never
intersect at a point, has a
unique direction
• Electric field lines are not
trajectories of charged particles

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 Electric Dipoles
• a pair of point charges with equal magnitudes but
with opposite signs

Note: We will confine our discussions on electric dipoles on two concepts:

• the force and torque that an electric dipole experiences in the presence
of an external electric field
• the electric field that it produces

• The electric dipole moment () is directed from the

(-) to the (+) charge.

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 Force and Torque on an Electric Dipole
• The net force on an electric dipole in a uniform electric
field is zero

• and have same magnitude () but opposite direction

and their net sum is zero

• The forces act on dipole along different lines of forces

hence the net torque is not zero

Recall:
𝜏 𝑟×⃗
⃗=⃗ 𝐹
𝜏 = 𝑟𝐹𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜙

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 =
Same torque magnitude for and pointing in the same direction (towards the page, x)

Electric dipole moment:

𝑝=𝑞𝑑 Units: C ● m

𝜏= 𝑝𝐸𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜙
𝜏 𝑝×⃗
⃗=⃗ 𝐸

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 Thank you for listening!

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