Physics

Electric Charges And Field

Lecture No.- 02

By- Tushar Patel Sir

TOPICS to be covered
1 Electric field

2 Electric field due to a point charge

3 Superposition principle

4 Electric field due to a group of charges

5 Physical significance of electric field

 Coulomb's law in vector form

1 𝑞1 𝑞2
• Force on q 2 due to q1 , 𝐹Ԧ21 = 𝑟Ƹ
4πϵ0 𝑟 2 12
Ƹ is the unit vector pointing from q1 to q 2
𝑟12
𝑟Ԧ12
𝑟12
Ƹ =
𝑟
1 𝑞1 𝑞2
𝐹Ԧ21 = 𝑟Ԧ
4πϵ0 𝑟 3 12
 1 𝑞1 𝑞2
• Force on 𝑞1 due to 𝑞2 , 𝐹Ԧ12 = 𝑟Ƹ
4πϵ0 𝑟 2 21
Ƹ is the unit vector pointing from 𝑞2 to 𝑞1
𝑟21
𝑟Ԧ21
𝑟21
Ƹ =
𝑟
1 𝑞1 𝑞2
Ԧ
𝐹12 = 𝑟Ԧ
4πϵ0 𝑟 3 21
𝑟Ԧ12 = −𝑟Ԧ21
𝐹Ԧ12 = −𝐹Ԧ21
i.e Coulomb's law obey Newton's third law
 Principle of superposition

1 𝑞1 𝑞2
𝐹Ԧ12 = 2
𝑟12
Ƹ
4πϵ0 𝑟12

1 𝑞1 𝑞2
𝐹Ԧ13 = 2
𝑟13
Ƹ
4𝜋𝜖0 𝑟13

𝐹Ԧ1 = 𝐹Ԧ12 + 𝐹Ԧ13

1 𝑞1 𝑞2 1 𝑞1 𝑞3
𝐹Ԧ1 = 𝐹Ԧ12 + 𝐹Ԧ13 = 2 rƶ 12 + 2 rƶ 13
4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟12 4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟13
 Principle of superposition

The principle of superposition says that in a system of charges 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 , … , 𝑞𝑛 , the force on

𝑞1 due to 𝑞2 is the same as given by Coulomb's law, i.e., it is unaffected by the presence of
the other charges 𝑞3 , 𝑞4 , … , 𝑞𝑛 . The total force F1 on the charge 𝑞1 , due to all other
charges, is then given by the vector sum of the forces F12 , F13 , … , F1𝑛 :
i.e.,
𝐹 = 𝐹Ԧ12 + 𝐹Ԧ13 + ⋯ … … … … … + 𝐹Ԧ1𝑛
1 𝑞1 𝑞2 𝑞1 𝑞3 𝑞1 𝑞𝑛
F1 = F12 + F13 + ⋯ + F1n = 2 rƶ 12 + 2 rƶ 13 + ⋯ + 2 rƶ 1𝑛
4πε0 𝑟12 𝑟13 𝑟1𝑛
𝑛
𝑞1 𝑞𝑖
= ෍ 2 rƶ 1𝑖
4πε0 𝑟1𝑖
𝑖=2
The vector sum is obtained as usual by the parallelogram law of addition of vectors. All of
electrostatics is basically a consequence of Coulomb's law and the superposition
principle.
QUESTION- 01

What is the force acting on a charge Q placed at the centroid of the triangle?
Solution:
F1 = F2 = F3 = F

R= P 2 + Q2 + PQcosθ

R= F 2 + F 2 + FFcos120

R= F 2 + F 2 + FF(−1)

R= F2 + F2 − F2
R=F

Net force acting on the charge at the centroid of the triangle is zero
 ELECTRIC FIELD

The electric field is defined as the region or space around a charge where an
electric force of attraction or repulsion can be experienced
 ELECTRIC FIELD

Like charges repel each other whereas unlike charges attract each other
 Electric field Intensity

Consider a charge Q placed in vacuum. If we place

another point charge q at a point P, then the charge Q
will exert a force on q as per Coulomb’s law. Let 𝐹Ԧ be
the force experienced by the charge q.
Force experienced by unit charge.

F
E=
q

The charge Q, which is producing the electric field, is

called a source charge and the charge q, which tests
the effect of a source charge, is called a test charge
 Electric field Intensity

• Unit Electric field Intensity is N/C or V/m

• Electric field Intensity is a vector quantity
• The force acting on the charge q is
F = qE
Consider a point charge Q placed in vacuum,
at the origin O.
If we place another point charge q at a point
P, where OP = r, then the charge Q will exert
a force on q as per Coulomb’s law

The charge Q produces an electric field

everywhere in the surrounding. When
another charge q is brought at some point P,
the field there acts on it and produces a force.
The electric field produced by the charge Q at
a point r is given as
1 𝑄 1 𝑄
E(r) = 2
𝑟ƶ = 2
𝑟ƶ
4πε0 𝑟 4πε0 𝑟
Note
(i) The source charge Q must remain at its original location. However, if a charge
q is brought at any point around Q, Q itself is bound to experience an
electrical force due to q and will tend to move. A way out of this difficulty is
to make q negligibly small. The force F is then negligibly small but the ratio
F/q is finite and defines the electric field
F
E = lim
𝑞→0 q
(ii) The electric field E due to Q, though defined operationally in terms of some
test charge q, is independent of q. This is because F is proportional to q, so
the ratio F/q does not depend on q. The force F on the charge q due to the
charge Q depends on the particular location of charge q which may take any
value in the space around the charge Q. Thus, the electric field E due to Q is
also dependent on the space coordinate r. For different positions of the
charge q all over the space, we get different values of electric field E. The field
exists at every point in three-dimensional space.
Note
(iii) For a positive charge, the electric field will be directed radially outwards
from the charge. On the other hand, if the source charge is negative, the
electric field vector, at each point, points radially inwards.

(iv) Since the magnitude of the force F on charge q due to charge Q depends only
on the distance r of the charge q from charge Q, the magnitude of the electric
field E will also depend only on the distance r. Thus at equal distances from
the charge Q, the magnitude of its electric field E is same. The magnitude of
electric field E due to a point charge is thus same on a sphere with the point
charge at its centre; in other words, it has a spherical symmetry.
 Electric field due to a system of charges

Consider a system of charges q1, q2, ..., qn with

position vectors r1, r2 , ..., rn relative to some
origin O. Like the electric field at a point in
space due to a single charge, electric field at a
point in space due to the system of charges is
defined to be the force experienced by a unit
test charge placed at that point, without
disturbing the original positions of charges
q1, q2, ..., qn . We can use Coulomb’s law and
the superposition principle to determine this
field at a point P denoted by position vector
r.
Electric field E1 at rԦ due to 𝑞1 at r1 is given by
1 𝑞1
E1 = 2 rƶ 1P
4πε0 𝑟1P
where rƶ 1P is a unit vector in the direction from 𝑞1
to P, and 𝑟1P is the distance between 𝑞1 and P.
In the same manner, electric field E2 at rԦ due to
𝑞2 at r2 is
1 𝑞2
E2 = 2 rƶ 2P
4πε0 𝑟2P
where rƶ 2P is a unit vector in the direction from 𝑞2
to P and 𝑟2P is the distance between 𝑞2 and P.
Similar expressions hold good for fields
E3 , E4 , … , E𝑛 due to charges 𝑞3 , 𝑞4 , … , 𝑞𝑛 .
 E (r) = E1 (r) + E2 (r) + ⋯ + En (r)
1 𝑞1 1 𝑞2 1 𝑞𝑛
E (r) = 2 𝑟ƶ1P + 2 𝑟ƶ2P + ⋯ + 2 𝑟ƶ𝑛P
4πε0 𝑟1P 4πε0 𝑟2P 4πε0 𝑟𝑛P
𝑛
1 𝑞𝑖
E(r) = ෍ 2 𝑖ƶiP
4πε0 𝑟𝑖P
𝑖=1
E is a vector quantity that varies from one point to
another point in space and is determined from the
positions of the source charges.
 Physical significance of electric field

Electric field is an elegant way of characterising the electrical environment of a

system of charges. Electric field at a point in the space around a system of charges
tells you the force a unit positive test charge would experience if placed at that
point (without disturbing the system). Electric field is a characteristic of the
system of charges and is independent of the test charge that you place at a point
to determine the field. The term field in physics generally refers to a quantity that
is defined at every point in space and may vary from point to point. Electric field
is a vector field, since force is a vector quantity.
The true physical significance of the concept of electric field, however, emerges
only when we go beyond electrostatics and deal with time dependent
electromagnetic phenomena