Electro Magnetic Fields

Electrostatics
Electrostatics is the branch of electromagnetics
dealing with the effects of electric charges at
rest.
The fundamental law of electrostatics is Coulomb’s
law.

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Electric Charge
Electrical phenomena caused by friction
are part of our everyday lives, and can be
understood in terms of electrical charge.
The effects of electrical charge can be
observed in the attraction/repulsion of
various objects when “charged.”
Charge comes in two varieties
called “positive” and “negative.”
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Electric Charge
Objects carrying a net positive charge
attract those carrying a net negative charge
and repel those carrying a net positive
charge.
Objects carrying a net negative charge
attract those carrying a net positive
charge and repel those carrying a net
negative charge.
On an atomic scale, electrons are
negatively charged and nuclei are
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positively charged.
Electric Charge
Electric charge is inherently quantized such
that the charge on any object is an integer
multiple of the smallest unit of charge
which is the magnitude of the electron
charge
e = 1.602  10-19 C.
On the macroscopic level, we can
assume that charge is “continuous.”
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Coulomb’s Law
Coulomb’s law is the “law of action”
between charged bodies.
Coulomb’s law gives the electric force
between two point charges in an otherwise
empty universe.
A point charge is a charge that occupies a
region of space which is negligibly small
compared to the distance between the point
charge and any other object.
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Coulomb’s
Q 1
Law
r12 Q2 Unit vector in
direction of R12

F 12
Q1
Force due to Q1 F 12 
acting on Q2 R12  20 r12
4Q 2

aˆ

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Coulomb’s Law
The force on Q1 due to Q2 is equal in magnitude but
opposite in direction to the force on Q2 due to Q1.

F 21  F
12

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Electric Field
Consider a point
charge Q placed at the
origin of a coordinate Qt
system in an otherwise r
empty universe.
A test charge
Q
Qt
brought neara Q
experiences QQ t
force:
F Q t  ˆr
a 40 r 2

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Electric Field
The existence of the force on Qt can be
attributed to an electric field produced by Q.
The electric field produced by Q at a point
in space can be defined as the force per
unit charge acting on a test charge Qt placed
that
at
FQ
point. E  Qlim
t 0Qt
t

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Electric Field
The electric field describes the effect of a stationary
charge on other charges and is an abstract “action-
at- a-distance” concept, very similar to the concept
of a gravity field.
The basic units of electric field are newtons
per coulomb.
In practice, we usually use volts per meter.

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Electric Field
For a point charge at the origin, the
electric field at any point is given
by
Q Qr
E r  r 
40 r 2
 0 r 3

aˆ 4

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Electric Field
For a point charge located at a point
P’
described by a position vectorr
P
QR field at P is given by
the electric
Er 
4  R 3
r
 0
R
Q
where
R  r  r
O r
R r

r 13
Electric Field
In electromagnetics, it is very popular to describe
the source in terms of primed coordinates, and the
observation point in terms of unprimed coordinates.
As we shall see, for continuous source distributions
we shall need to integrate over the source
coordinates.

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Electric Field
Using the principal of superposition, the electric
field at a point arising from multiple point charges
may be evaluated as

n
Qk R k
E r  
40 Rk
3


k 1

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Continuous Distributions of Charge
Charge can occur
as
point
volumecharges
charges
(C)
(C/m3)  most general
surface charges (C/m2)
line charges (C/m)

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Continu ous Distributions of
Charge
Volume charge
density

Qencl

V’
r
Qencl
qev r  
lim V 0 V 

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Continuous Distributions of
Charge
Electric field due to volume charge
density

dV’ r P
r
V’
Qencl

qev rdv3
d Er   4 R
0
R

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Electric Field Due to
Volume Charge Density

1 qev rR

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Continuous Distributions of
Charge
Surface charge
density

Qencl

S’
r
Qencl
qes r  lim
S
 0
S 

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Continuous Distributions of
Charge
Electric field due to surface charge
density

dS’ r P
r
S’
Qencl

qes rds3
d Er   4 R
0
R

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Electric Field Due to Surface
Charge Density

1 qes rR

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Continuous Distributions of
Charge
Line charge
density

L
r ’ Qencl

Qencl
qel r  lim
L0
L
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Continuous Distributions of
Charge
Electric field due to line charge
density

L
r ’ Qencl r P

qel rdl3
d Er   4 R
0
R
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Electric Field Due to Line Charge
Density

1 qel rR 

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Electrostatic Potential
An electric field is a force field.
If a body being acted on by a force is moved
from one point to another, then work is done.
The concept of scalar electric potential provides
a measure of the work done in moving charged
bodies in an electrostatic field.

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Electrostatic Potential
The work done in moving a test charge
from one point to another in a region
electric field:
of
F
b
a
q dl
b
b
Wab   F  dl  q  E 
dl
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a
Electrostatic Potential
In evaluating line integrals, it is customary to
take the dl in the direction of increasing
coordinate value so that the manner in
which the path of integration is traversed is
unambiguously determined by the limits of
integratiobn. a
x
3
3 5
Wab  q E  aˆx
dx
5
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Electrostatic Potential
The electrostatic field is conservative:
The value of the line integral depends only on
the end points and is independent of the path
taken.
The value of the line integral around any closed
path is zero.

C  E  dl 
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0
Electrostatic Potential
The work done per unit charge in
moving a test charge from point a to
point b is the electrostatic potential
difference between the two points:
b
W
Vab ab
q  a E 
dl electrostatic potential difference
Units are volts.
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Electrostatic Potential
Since the electrostatic field is conservative we
can write

b P0 b

Vab  a E  dl  a E  dl   E 

dlV bV

a 31
Electrostatic Potential
Thus the electrostatic potential V is a scalar field that
is defined at every point in space.
In particular the value of the electrostatic potential
at any point P is given by

V r   P  E 
0
reference point
dl
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Electrostatic Potential
The reference point (P0) is where the
potential is zero (analogous to ground in a
circuit).
Often the reference is taken to be at
so that the potential oP f a point in space
infinity
defined as
is
V r     E 
dl

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Electrostatic Potential and
Electric Field
The work done in moving a point charge from point
a
to point b can be written as

Wab  QVab  QV bV

W  QV  QE l

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Electrostatic Potential and
Electric Field
Along an incremental path of length dl we have

Recall from thdeVdefinitionEof didrelctional

derivative:

dV  V 
dl
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