Are We Spending So Much Time On These Abstract Things Called Electric Fields?

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Why?

Are we spending so much time on these abstract things


called electric fields?
Because E-fields are real. They cause charges to move,
currents to flow, and your toaster and brain cells to work.
And because the basic rules for electromagnetism are rules
about electric fields and magnetic fields.

Why so much calculus in studio and no calculus on HW?


Because the basic rules for electromagnetism can only be
expressed in terms of calculus.
And despite the good job are math department has done,
applying calculus to physics problems the first time benefits from
being in a room where you can get a lot of help.
There will be 1 or 2 calculus problems on quiz 1!

Electrical effects of dust

The van de Graaf generator attracts small neutral


objects (dust, pollen, water droplets) to it when charged.
What would happen to one of these objects if it touched
the generator.
A. Nothing much; it would bounce off at the same speed it
contacted the generator.
B. It would stick to the generator.
C. It would be repelled from the generator at high speed.

The principle of superposition

The electric field at any point in space r is the sum of the electric
fields at r that would be produced by all the electric charges in the
universe.


i N
r ri
1
1
E (r , ri ) Qi
2
4 0 | r ri | | r ri |
i 1

This is actually good enough for any E-field calculation. In many


situations however, there are so many charges that are spread out
so smoothly that we can think of the charge in coming in a
continuous charge density.
This density can come in the form of a charge per unit length,
usually called ; a charge per unit area, called , or a charge per
unit volume, called .

Effective point charge


If charge is spread out along a line, it is useful to think of
little pieces of charge as point charges of magnitude
dq=lds, where ds is a small piece of the line. If the line
is along the x-axis, ds=dx, for example. is the linear
charge density.
If the charge is spread out over a surface, we can
likewise make point charges from dq=sdA, where dA is a
small piece of surface. dA=dxdy is one example, and we
will see another soon. is the surface charge density.
Finally, if the charge is spread out through space,
dq=dV, where dV is a small piece of volume.
dV=dxdydz is one possibility for this. is the volume
charge density. This is annoyingly the same symbol
often used for mass density (and resistivity!).

Superposition with continuous charge


We use superposition in exactly the same way. The exact expression
for E becomes


i N
r ri
1
1
E (r ) dqi
2
4 0 | r ri | | r ri |
i 1

If there are many charges (N) and the charges are very small,
(dq0), then this sum turns into an integral

1
1
r r
E (r ) dqr
2
4 0 | r r | | r r |

We have to adapt this formula to particular problems to make it useful.

Example: a line of charge


We have been working through this in studio.
A wire of length L carries a charge Q uniformly spread
out along the wire.
Today Ill find the field at the point shown below, and you
will do this in your next studio.
P

Q
L

The steps
Identify the piece of charge: dq=dx. In this problem, =Q/L, is a
constant.
Pick a piece of the wire. A coordinate system is handy here. Start
with x=0 at the left end, x=L at the right, and choose an arbitrary x in
the middle.
This piece will contribute a field of magnitude

kQdx
1
dE
2
2
L ( L x) L
We want to add up all the pieces, but we cant use the magnitude
for this, we need the components. That is, we need to project dE
onto the x-axis and the y-axis to find dEx and dEy.

Projecting the components


dEx
dEy

dE

dEx/dE=(L-x)/[(L-x)2+L2]1/2
dEy/dE=L/[(L-x)2+L2]1/2
Or:

dEx=dE(L-x)/[(L-x)2+L2]1/2
dEy=dEL/[(L-x)2+L2]1/2

dq=Qdx/L
x

L-x

Adding it up with an integral


We can add the components up, so we do it.

kQ
dxL x
E x dE x

2
2 3/ 2
L
x 0
x 0 L x L
xL

xL

xL

xL

kQ
dxL
E y dE y

2
2
L

L
x 0
x 0

3/ 2

This is in many ways the answer. The only simplification left is to do


the integrals? How? Look them up! This is not a calculus class. But
we can do these integrals.

The answer
The integrals are here
xL

dxL x

L x

x 0

xL

x 0

2 3/ 2

v 0

vdv
2

vL

dxL

L x

vL

2 3/ 2

v 0

Ldv
2

2 3/ 2

2 3/ 2

And the grand final answer is here

kQ
1
E x 2 1

L
2
kQ
Ey
2 L2

vL
v 0

v L
2

v
L v L
2

1
1

L
2L

vL
v 0

2L

Developing a tool box


Were next going to use a series of examples both for
practice and to show how answers to problems can be
reused.
We will look at the field produced at a point above the
center of:
A ring of charge.
A disk of charge.
An infinite plane of charge.

These examples all have a feature known as symmetry.

A ring of uniformly distributed negative charge


z

P
y
x

Which way does the field point at P?


A. In the +z direction.
B. In the z direction.
C. Radially outward.
D. Radially inward.
E. No direction (E=0).

The field from the ring


Only the z-component is not zero on the axis.
For our example, =-|Q|/2R (the ring is negative).
The charge from a little piece is dq=(-|Q|/2R)ds, where ds
is a little arc of the circle. We could write ds as ds=Rd, with
the azimuthal angle.
kRd
h
dE z 2
The field contribution is
2
2
2

R h

R h

To find the total field, we just integrate over . This is


simple, d=2. So the Ez is

Ez

2khR

k |Q|h

3
2 2

3
2 2

The field from a disk


Now we consider the case of being a height h above a
disk of radius R. The disk has a constant surface charge
density =Q/R2.
Well do this by noticing that we can build of the disk
from a bunch of little rings with r ranging from 0 to R.
The area of a ring is dA=2rdr, and the charge on the
ring is dq=2rdr.
We know what the field produced by a ring is! So,

dE z

khdq

3
2 2

2hkrdr

3
2 2

1
1
E z 2hk
h2 R2
h

The field from a large plane


What if we look above a very large thin sheet of charge
with a charge/area=s.
We can use the disk result and take R, keeping h
fixed. This means our result will be OK for a real sheet
as long as the height above the sheet is much less than
the width of the sheet. We find

1
1
E z 2hk
2
2
h
h

2k

Or, putting k=1/4 0, Ez=/20. The field is a constant,


independent of the height. An easy way to make a
constant E-filed is to spread charge out over a large
plane.

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