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Fundamentals of Physics Lecture 8. Basic principles of electricity.

Electric charge. Coulomb’s law.

The Greek word for amber is electron, and it is from this root word that we get our word
electricity.

As we study electricity, we still use the concepts of mechanics, especially such ideas as the
conservation of energy and the relationship between force and acceleration.

In fact, the nongravitational forces that were studied in mechanics, such as friction and Hooke's
law, are actually due to electrical forces between molecules and atoms.

In solids the mobile charges are negative electrons. When electrons are removed from an object,
positive charges remain. These consist of the nuclei of the atoms that make up the material. In
solids the positive charges are not mobile.

In liquids and gases, however, positive charges, too, are free to move.

On the electrical properties materials are divided into 3 groups:

A conductor is a material through which charge may flow easily;

An insulator is a material through which charge flows poorly or not at all.

A semiconductors, which are materials that are neither good conductors nor good insulators, but
show a behavior intermediate between the two. All modern electronics is based on semiconductors

Macroscopic objects are nearly always electrically neutral. They have neither excess negative nor
excess positive charge.

we can give them a negative charge by adding extra electrons

we can make them positive by removing electrons

no charge is removed from any object except by being transferred to another object.
Law of conservation of charge: the total amount of electric charge in the universe remains
constant

q1 + q2 + q3 + …+ qn = const

single charges can be neither created nor destroyed. This principle is one of the fundamental
observations of nature, equal in importance to the conservation laws for energy, momentum, and
angular momentum.

No violations of this principle have ever been observed. Charges can be created (and destroyed)
only in pairs of equal magnitude and opposite sign.

In his experiments on electrical forces, Coulomb charged two small pith balls (pith is a light,
spongy material from the center of plant stems) and measured the force between them

Coulomb: "The repulsive force between two small spheres electrified with the same type of
electricity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of the two
spheres."

Coulomb also verified the inverse-square distance law for the attractive force between unlike
charges.

The electrostatic force also depends on the product of the charges. Thus the magnitude of the force
between two point charges is

where q1 and q2 are the values of the two charges, r is the separation between them, and к is a
proportionality constant. This relationship is known as Coulomb's law.

To measure the relatively small electrostatic forces, Coulomb used a torsion balance. The torsion
balance measured the electric force on the charged spheres in the same way that Cavendish’s
balance measured the gravitational force.

The force is directed along the line joining the two charges. If both q1 and q2 are positive, their
product is positive and so F is positive, indicating a repulsive force. Similarly, if both charges are
negative, F is again positive and the force is again repulsive.

However, if one charge is positive and the other negative, then F is negative, indicating an
attractive force.

The force F1,2 exerted on charge q1 by charge q2 is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to
the force F2,1 exerted on charge q2 by charge q1

The SI unit for charge, the coulomb (C), is derived from the ampere. If we measure the amount of
charge in coulombs and the separation in meters, then Coulomb’s law correctly gives the force in
newtons if

It is often convenient to define the constant in Coulomb's law to be

The quantity ε₀ is known as the permittivity of free space and has the value

When the permittivity constant is used, Coulomb's law takes the form

The most fundamental unit of charge in nature is the charge of an electron or proton. This
quantity is denoted by e, the elementary charge, which has the value

e =1.602(10-19C

Thus it takes about 6.24(1018 electrons to make one coulomb of charge.

Experimentally, it has been found that electrical charge always occurs in multiples of the
elementary charge e. For this reason we say that charge is quantized; that is, it occurs only in
integer multiples of е.
Electric field. Superposition principle.

We define the electric field E at a point in space as the force F per unit charge exerted on a small
positive test charge q0 placed at that point:

We choose the test charge q0 to be very small so that its presence does not distort the field being
measured.

Thus the units of electric field are newtons per coulomb, N/C. The direction of the field vector is
the direction of the force on a positive test charge.

Field of a single point charge Q that is isolated from other charges. The magnitude of F is

The magnitude of the electric field at point r is

or

If Q is a positive charge, then the field is directed radially away from it. If Q is negative, the
direction of the field is toward it.

The relative number of lines of force is proportional to the magnitude of the force and hence to the
strength of the field.

In an electrostatic field, lines of force always begin at positive charges and end at negative charges.

Superposition of Electric Field

Three charges produce an electric field in space. The field measured at point P is the vector sum of
the individual fields. Net force acting to the test charge q0 at point P is:

The electric field at P is found by dividing the force by the q0, obtaining
In other words, the electric field resulting from several point charges is just the superposition of
their individual fields.

Lines of electric field near two equal charges.

Lines of electric field near two equal but opposite charges.

Electric Flux and Gauss’s law.

The electric flux through a small portion of surface area ∆A is the product of the magnitude of the
electric field |E|, the magnitude of the surface area ∆A, and the cosine of the angle θ between the
direction of the field and the direction of the normal to the surface. The electric flux is then:

ΔΦE = EΔAcosθ

It is more convenient to use the area vector to describe the flux.

The area vector A is equal to the product of the area and normal vector n, where the normal vector
is a unit vector perpendicular to the surface.

For non uniform field and complex shape of area we have to divide area to small elements. By using
this we state that element of Electric flux dΦE is dot product of vector of electric field intensity
and vector of Area element dA:
Summing the contributions of all elements gives an approximation to the total flux through the
surface:

Where we take integral over all surface A.

We are often interested in evaluating the flux through a closed surface, defined as a surface that
divides space into an inside and an outside region so that one cannot move from one region to the
other without crossing the surface.

The net flux through the surface is proportional to the net number of lines leaving the surface,
where the net number means the number of lines leaving the surface minus the number of lines
entering the surface. If more lines are leaving than entering, the net flux is positive. If more lines
are entering than leaving, the net flux is negative. Using the symbol of an integral over a closed
surface, we can write the net flux ΦE through a closed surface as:

Consider a point positive charge + q and spherical surface centered about the charge. The lines of
electric field emerging from this charge + q pass through the surface. The number of field lines
passing through the surface is independent of the radius of the surface. Also we can see that
electric field is equal at all points and perpendicular to the surface, so θ = 0 and cosθ = 1.

The integral over surface is equal to the area of sphere: A = 4πr2. We know that the magnitude of
the electric field everywhere on the surface of the sphere is

Substitute these in flux we get:

The net electric flux through any (real or imaginary) closed surface is directly proportional to the
net electric charge enclosed within that surface.

Where Q - is net electric charge within surface.

Gauss's law stands as one of the fundamental laws of electricity. The surface (usually imaginary)
used for application of Gauss's law is often called a Gaussian surface.

The net amount of electric flux that passes through an arbitrary closed surface is directly related
to the amount of electric charge inside that surface.

Gauss's law to prove an important assertion: An excess charge placed on a conductor resides
entirely on its outer surface.

For example, if an excess charge is placed on an isolated conductor of any arbitrary shape, the
charge sets up a field within the conductor. This field causes the mobile charges within the
conductor to move about until the internal field reduces to zero. When the internal field reaches
zero, the charge stops moving and the system is in static equilibrium. Thus for a charged conductor
in equilibrium, the electric field inside the conductor must be zero.

The dashed line represents a Gaussian surface just inside the surface of a charged conductor,
shown here in cross section. We can use Gauss's law to show that when a charged conductor has
reached electrical equilibrium, any excess charge on the conductor must reside on its outer
surface.

Electric potential. Equipotential surfaces.

If the test charge is released from rest at rB, it will be in motion as it passes rA and will therefore
have kinetic energy. From conservation of energy, we know that this kinetic energy must come
from somewhere, which means that the work given by formula corresponds to an increase in
potential energy of the test charge. Since the interaction is electrical we call this electrical
potential energy. The work given by this equation corresponds to an increase in potential energy
of the test charge.

The electrostatic force is a conservative force, just like the gravitational force, so the work done
does not depend on the path of the charge, but only on its starting and ending positions.

The formula gives us the difference in electrical potential energy between two points in space due
to a point charge. In establishing a zero of potential energy, we are free to pick any absolute
reference potential that suits our convenience.

Traditionally, we choose the zero of potential to correspond to the case in which the charges are
infinitely separated, that is, for rA = ∞. With this choice, the electrical potential energy of the test
charge q0 located a finite distance r away from a source charge Q is

For a positive charge Q, the electrical force on a positive charge q0 is repulsive and the potential
energy is positive. However, if Q is negative, resulting in an attractive force between Q and q0, the
electrical potential energy is negative.

When the charges have the same sign the potential energy is positive and when the charges have
unlike signs the potential energy is negative.

For example.

(a) A test charge q0 located a distance rA from a source charge +Q.

(b) The test charge is moved a distance ∆r closer to source charge Q, which results in a change the
potential energy.

Work done is negative (displacement directed opposite to force). Potential energy increase.
We define the electric potential V at a point in an electric field as the electrical potential energy
divided by the magnitude of the test charge q0:

The electric potential due to a point charge Q is obtained from the potential energy by dividing by
qo,

If the charge Q is positive, the potential is positive, and if Q is negative, the potential is negative.

The electric potential at any point in space is defined to be the work per unit charge required to
bring a charge from infinity to that point.

The unit of electric potential is the volt: 1 volt = 1 joule/coulomb.

The electric potential due to two or more point charges is easily obtained. From the principle of
superposition of forces, the work done in bringing a test charge from infinity can be separated into
parts associated with the individual forces due to each single charge. The total work is the sum of
these individual contributions. Because electric potential is a scalar, not a vector quantity, the
potential at a given point in space is just the algebraic sum of the potential due to the separate
source charges.

Vtot = V1 + V2 + ... + Vn

Potential difference (Voltage)

Often, the quantity of interest is not the absolute potential, but the potential difference between
two points. The electric potential difference is the ratio of the work required to move a charge
from one point to another to the magnitude of the charge. The potential difference between points
A and В is

Since the potential is measured in volts, the potential difference is also measured in volts. For this
reason we often refer to a potential difference as a voltage.
Many times, the potential difference is taken with reference to the ground (earth), which we
generally choose as the zero potential.

A test charge q0 changes potential energy when moving along a radial path away from a fixed
charge Q, but not when moving in a circular path about Q. The circular path is an equipotential
line.

Any surface for which all points are at the same potential is called an equipotential surface.

Each equipotential surface represents a different potential, decreasing in magnitude with

Equipotential surfaces may be drawn corresponding to any given configuration of electric field.
We construct the contours of the equipotential surfaces by making them everywhere
perpendicular to the electric field vector (or lines of force).

Electric Potential Gradient

We can determine the electric field from the knowledge of the potentials.

For example, suppose we wish to move a test charge q0 from one equipotential surface to another
along a path dr. If the potential increases by dV, we must do an amount of work:

dW = qodV

If the path is perpendicular to the equipotential surfaces, then it must lie along the direction of the
electric field present in that region of space.

So, we can also calculate the work done in terms of the force due to that field:
we find that:

or

The quantity dV/dr is called the electric potential gradient. (See additional information on the end
of fail.) It is the rate of change of the electric potential with distance, that is, the change in
potential with unit distance. The potential gradient is a vector whose magnitude is equal to the
magnitude of the electric field and whose direction is opposite to the direction of the electric field.
Thus the electric field is equal to the negative of the potential gradient.

In SI units the electric field is given in volts per meter (V/m).