Physics
Properties of Electric Charges
Charge
Before we go into discussing Coulomb's law, we need to revise what you have learnt in the
previous grades about charge and its properties. Charge is the fundamental property of matter
associated with electrons and protons which are found in any atom. There are only two types of
charges: negative and positive charges. By convention, negative charges are carried by electrons
and positive charges are carried by protons.
When the number of electrons and protons in an object are equal that object is said to be
electrically neutral. However, if this electrical balance is disturbed, then the object is said to be
electrically charged. A negatively charged object contains more electros than protons, but a
positively charged body contains more protons than electrons.
Properties of charges
Property I: There are two kinds of electric charges: Positive and Negative.
Property II: Two similarly charged bodies repel each other and two oppositely charged bodies
attract each other.
Property III: Electric charge is always conserved, i.e., it cannot be created or destroyed. In any
charging process, the number of electrons gained by one object is equal to the number of
electrons lost by the other.
Property IV: Electric charge is quantized. Charge comes in discrete packets, it means that charge
(q) always occurs as some integral multiple of the charge of an electron, e. It can be written as: q
= ±ne (where n = 1, 2, 3, ...)
The smallest unit of charge that is carried by one electron or proton is called the elementary
charge, e. The magnitude of the charge of an electron is: le=-1.6×10-19 C
The charge carried by a proton is also the same as that of the charge carried by an
electron except it is positive.
1p=+1.6×10-19 C
Electrostatic Force
A force of attraction or repulsion between two charged bodies, is known as the electrostatic
force. Electrostatic force is either attractive or repulsive, unlike the gravitational force which is
only attractive. If the objects have opposite charges they attract each other, while if their
charges are similar, they repel each other.
In 1785, the French physicist Charles Coulomb, proposed a law that describes the force that one
charged particle exerts on another. This law is remarkably similar in form to Newton's law of
gravitation. Coulomb's law states that any two-point charges exert an electrical force on each
other that is directly proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to
the square of the distance between them. where q_{1} is the charge on the one particle, q_{2} is
the charge on the second, and r is the distance between the two.
Figure 6.3: Coulomb's Law
Then, the magnitude of the electrostatic force between two point-charges is given by:
The proportionality constant k is called the electrostatic, or Coulomb constant. It can also be
written in terms of the permittivity of free space epsilon_{0} whose value is, epsilon 0 = 8.85 * 10
^ - 12 * C ^ 2 / N .m^ 2 . With this, the value of k becomes: k = 4περ 4×3.14×8.85×10¹² C2 / N.m²
9.0×10° N.m²/C²
Force on a Charge due to Multiple Electric Charges
Electrostatic force is a vector quantity. Therefore, if there are more than one force acting on a
charged particle, then the resultant force acting on the particle will be the vector sum of all these
forces. This is known as the superposition principle.
Consider a system of n stationary charges q_{1}, q_{2} ,q 3 ....q n in vacuum. The force on q_{1}
due to q_{2} ,q 3 ....q n is obtained by taking the vector sum of the individual forces.
After the magnitude of each force is determined the next step will be determining the directions
of the forces exerted on q_{3} due to q1 and q2 by considering the sign of the pair of these
charges
Thus, the magnitude of the resultant force acting on charge q_{3} is 143.2N, and the force is
directed along the negative axis
An electric field is a region in space where one charge experiences a force from another charge.
Let us consider a point charge Q placed in vacuum, at point 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. We say
that the charge Q produces an electric field in its surrounding
Electric field lines
The electric field produced by a charged particle can be represented by lines of force called
electric field lines. It is drawn in the direction that a positive charge would move if placed at a
point in the field. Electric field lines are helpful to visualize the vector nature of an electric field.
The Figures 6.8 (a) to (f) shows the electric field lines for different arrangement of charges.
Properties of electric Field lines
Electric field lines have the following properties
1. Electric field lines do not cross each other.
2. Electric field lines begin on positive charges and radiate away from them toward negative
charges, where they terminate.
3. Electric field lines are always perpendicular to the surface of the charged body.
4. The closer the lines, the stronger the electric field, and the farther apart they are the weaker is
the field.
5. Equally spaced electric field lines indicate the field is uniform. The electric field between two
parallel plates, shown in Figure 6.8, is a common example of a uniform electric field.
The Electric field strength
The magnitude and direction of the electric field is expressed by a quantity called electric field
strength or electric field intensity (E). Electric field strength, is the force acting per unit positive
charge for a stationary point charge. In equation form: Electric Field of Point Charge: The electric
field of a point charge can be obtained from Coulomb's law. From Coulomb's law, the equation
for the force between two electric charges is:
The electric field strength is then the force per unit of charge.
where E is the electric field strength due to a point charge Q, and r is the distance from charge Q
to the point of interest. From the above equation of electric field
strength, we see that the electric field is depend only on the source charge Q and the distance r;
it is independent of the test charge q.
The SI unit for the electric field strength is newton per coulomb (N/C). The direction of the
electric field will be in the direction of the force the source charge exerted on a positive test
charge. Thus, electric field lines will direct away from a positive source charge and towards a
negative source charge.
L
Electric field for multiple point charges
The electric field from multiple point charges can be obtained by taking the vector sum of the
electric fields of the individual Consider n number of charges whose electric fields have
electric fields of the individual Consider n number of charges whose electric fields have
magnitudes of…..| at a given point. The net electric field is found by taking the vector electric
field: Electric flux
One of the properties of electric field lines is that, the number of field lines crossing a unit area,
placed normal to the field at a point, is a measure of the strength of electric field at that point.
This means that the number of field lines per unit area, is proportional to the magnitude of the
electric field, or E sim N / A . We can rewrite this proportion as the number of field lines is
proportional to the product of E and A, N ~EA. The area vector of a flat surface of area A has the
following magnitude and direction:
Magnitude is equal to area of the surface (A) Direction along normal or perpendicular to the
surface.
This means, if the electric field vectors are tangent to the surface at all points, that is if they
don't penetrate the surface, the electric flux through the surface is zero. Electric flux is a scalar
quantity, whose SI unit is N.m2/C.
Electric Potential Energy
The concept of electric potential energy is similar to that of gravitational potential energy. In
raising a ball with mass m to any height, you are giving it gravitational potential energy. Electric
potential energy is similar but with charges instead of masses. Instead of raising a ball in the
gravitational field of the Earth, you move a charge in the electric field of another charge.
In order to move one positive charge closer to another positive charge, (charge q closer to
charge Q in Figure 6.10) work has to be done by an external agent. This is simply because there
is a force of repulsion between the charges. In the process of doing work, energy is transferred
from you to the charge that you are pushing. As a result, the charges gain electrical potential
energy.
We define electrical potential energy of a test charge q in terms of the work done on the charge
q. Work done by external force in bringing a unit positive charge from
point A to B, in Figure 6.10 is the electrical potential energy of q.
Thus, the potential energy of a test charge 'q' in the vicinity of a source charge 'Q' will be: U = k
* (qQ)/r
Electric Potential
Electric potential is another concept which helps us to visualize the behavior of electric fields. In
unit 4, gravitational potential is defined from the idea of potential energy. The potential at a point
is the potential energy of unit mass at that point. We will approach the idea of electrical potential
in the same way. Electric potential (denoted by V) is equal to the work done per positive charge
in carrying it from infinity to that point in an electric field. The work to be done is equal to the
change in the potential energy of the test charge in the field of the source charge The potential
due to a single point charge
In electrostatics the zero of potential is at infinity, at a larger distance from the source charge,
because the electric field and force approach zero there. In the same way as we consider
gravitational potential energy at the ground to be zero, electric potential
is defined as the work done per unit positive charge to move a positive test charge from infinity
to its current position within an electric field.
Electrical Potential Difference
Consider a positive test charge +q placed at A in the electric field of a source charge Q. The test
charge moves towards B under the influence of the electric field of the source charge. In the
process the test charge loses electrical potential energy and gains kinetic energy. Thus, at A, the
test charge has more potential energy than at B, A is said to have a higher electrical potential
than B.
Figure 6.13: Potential Difference
The potential difference between two points (A and B in this case) in an electric field is defined
as the work required to move a unit positive test charge from the point of lower potential to that
of higher potential.
If an amount of work W is required to move a charge Q from one point to another, then the
potential difference between the two points is given by,