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CHAPTER 1
Electric charges and field
Electric Charge
It is an intrinsic property of the elementary particles like electrons, protons, etc., of which all
the objects are made up of. Electric charge gives rise to electric force between various objects.
It is a scalar quantity. Its SI unit is Coulomb (C). A proton has a positive charge and an
electron has a negative charge , where
coulomb

Electrostatics
It is the study of electric charges at rest. Here we study the forces, fields and potentials
associated with static charges.
Applications of electrostatics
1. In electrostatic loudspeaker.
2. In electrostatic spraying of paints and powder coating.
3. In fly ash collection in chimneys
4. In a Xerox copying machine.

Two kinds of electric charge

About 100 years ago, Charles Du Fay of France showed that electric charges on various objects
are of only two kinds. The following simple experiments prove this fact
Experiment 1

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(i) Rub a glass rod with silk and suspend it from a rigid support by means of a silk
thread. Bring another similarly charges rod near it. The two rods repel each other.

(ii) Bring a plastic rod rubbed with wool near the charged glass rod. The two rods attract
each other.

(iii) Now rub a plastic rod with wool and suspend it from a rigid support. Bring another
similarly charges elastic rod near it. There will be repulsion between the two rods.

Experiment 2
If a glass rod, rubbed with silk, is made to touch two small pith balls which are suspended
by silk threads, then the two balls repel each other, as shown in Fig. Similarly two pith balls
touched with a plastic rod rubbed with fur are found to repel each other Fig. But it is seen
that a pith ball touched with glass rod attracts another pith ball touched with a plastic rod

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From the above experiments, we note that charge produced on a glass rod is different from
that on plastic rod. Also the charge produced on pith ball touched with glass rod is different
from the charge produced on pith ball touched with a plastic rod. We can conclude that:

(i) There are two kinds of electric charges – positive and negative.
(ii) Like charges repel and unlike charges attract each other.
The statement (ii) is known as the fundamental law of electrostatics.
Vitreous and resinous charges: Charles Du Fay used the terms Vitreous and resinous for
the two kinds of charges which was replaced by the terms positive and negative charges
respectively, given by Benjamin Franklin (An American pioneer of electrostatics)
1. The charge developed on a glass rod when rubbed with silk is called positive or
vitreous charge.
2. The charge developed on a plastic rod when rubbed with wool is called negative
or resinous charge.

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Conductors and Insulators
Substances through which electric charges can flow easily are called conductors. They contain
a large number of free electrons which make them a good conductor of electricity. Metals,
human and animal bodies etc., are conductors.
Substances through which electric charges cannot flow easily are called insulators. Due to
absence of free charge carriers, these substances offer high resistance to the flow of electricity
through them. Non-Metals, glass, plastic etc., are insulators.

Electrostatic Induction
The phenomenon of temporary electrification of a conductor in which opposite charges
appear at its closer end and similar charges appear at its farther end in the presence of a
nearby charged body.
The positive and negative charges produced at the ends of the conducting rod are called
induced charges and the charge on the glass rod which induces these charges on conducting
rod is called inducing charge.
Opposite Charging of two spheres by induction
As shown in Fig.,

a. Hold the two metal spheres on insulating stands and place them in contact

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 b. Bring a positively charged glass rod near the left sphere. The free electrons of the
spheres get attracted toward the glass rod. The left surface of the left sphere develops
an excess of negative charge while the right side of the right sphere develops an excess
of positive charge. As the negative charge begins to build up at the left face, it starts
repelling the new electrons. Soon an equilibrium is established under the action of force
of attraction of the rod and the force of repulsion due to the accumulated electrons.
c. Holding the glass rod near the left sphere, separate the two spheres by a small distance.
The two spheres now have opposite charges.
d. Remove the glass rod. The charges on the sphere get redistributed. Their positive and
negative charges face each other. The two spheres attract each other.
e. When the two spheres are separated quite apart, the charges on them get uniformly
distributed.

Basic Properties of Electric Charge

1. Additivity
2. Quantization
3. Conservation

Additivity of electric charge means that the total charge of the system is the algebraic sum of
all the individual charges located at different points inside the system.
If a system contains charges , then its total charge is

The total charge of a system containing four charges is

Quantization of Electric Charge

The experimental fact that electric charges occur in discrete amounts instead of continuous
amounts is called Quantization of Electric Charge. The Quantization of Electric Charge means
that the total charge of a body is always an integral multiple of a basic quantum of charge

Law of Conservation of Charge

It states that:
1. The total charge of an isolated system remains constant.
2. The electric charges can neither be created nor destroyed, they can only be transferred

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 from one body to another.
Examples: When a glass rod is rubbed with a silk cloth, it develops a positive charge. But
at the same time, the silk cloth develops an equal negative charge. Thus the net charge
of the glass rod and the silk cloth is zero, as it was before rubbing.

Electric Charge vs. Mass

Effect of speed on mass and electric charge

According to the special theory of relativity, the mass of a body increases with its speed
in accordance with the relation:

In contrast to mass, the charge on a body remains constant and does not change as the speed
of the body changes.

Coulomb’s Law of Electric Force

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Coulomb’s Law states that the force of attraction or repulsion between two stationary point
charges is (i) directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the two charges and (ii)
inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This force acts along the
line joining the two charges.

If two point charges and are separated by distance r, then the force F of attraction or
repulsion between them is such that

The value of k depends on the nature of the medium between the two charges and the system
of units chosen to measure

For the two charges located in free space and in SI units, we have

of free space.

Hence

Coulomb’s Law in Vector Form

As shown in Fig., Consider two positive point charges placed in vacuum at distance
from each other. They repel each other.

In vector form, Coulomb’s law maybe expressed as

⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ ̂ 12

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 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
where ̂ 12 , is a unit vector in the direction from .

Similarly, ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ ̂ 21

⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗
where ̂ 21 , is a unit vector in the direction from .

The coulombian forces between unlike charges are attractive, as shown in Fig.

Limitations of Coulomb’s law

Coulomb’s law is not applicable in all situations. It is valid only under the following conditions:
1. Electric charges must be at rest.
2. Electric charges must be point charges i.e., the extension of charges must be much
smaller than the separation between the charges.
3. The separation between the charges must be greater than the nuclear size
because for distances , the strong nuclear force dominates over
the electrostatic force.

Dielectric Constant: Relative Permittivity

Permittivity: An introduction
When two charges are placed in any medium other than air, the force between them is
greatly affected. Permittivity is a property of a medium which determines the electric
force between two charges situated in that medium. For example, the force between
two charges located some distance apart in water is about 1/80th of the force between
them when they are separated by same distance in air. This is because the absolute
permittivity of water is about 80 times greater than the absolute permittivity of air or
free space.
Dielectric Constant or Relative Permittivity
The ratio of the permittivity of the medium to the permittivity of free space is
called Dielectric Constant or Relative Permittivity of the given medium. Thus

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 The Dielectric Constant or Relative Permittivity of a medium maybe defined as the ratio
of the force between two charges placed some distance apart in free space to the force
between the same two charges when they are placed the same distance apart in the
given medium.

Comparing Electrostatic and Gravitational Forces

Electrostatic force is the force of attraction or repulsion between two charges at rest while the
Gravitational Force is the force of attraction between two bodies by the virtue of their masses.
Similarities
1. Both forces obey inverse square law.
2. Both forces are proportional to product of masses or charges.
3. Both are central forces i.e., they act along the line joining the centers of the two
bodies.
4. Both are conservative forces i.e., the work done against these forces does not
depend upon the path followed.
5. Both forces can operate in vacuum.
Dissimilarities
1. Gravitational Force is attractive while electrostatic Force is repulsive.
2. Gravitational Force does not depend on the nature of the medium while electrostatic
Force depends on the nature of the medium.
3. Electrostatic Forces are much stronger than Gravitational Force.

Forces between Multiple Charges: The Superposition Principle

The Superposition Principle states that when a number of charges are interacting, the total
force on a given charge is the vector sum of the forces exerted on it due to all other charges.
The force between two charges is not affected by the presence of other charges.

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As shown in Fig., consider N point charges placed in vacuum at points whose
position vectors w.r.t origin O are respectively

According to the principle of superposition, the total force on charge q1 is given by

where are the forces exerted on charge q1 by the individual charges

respectively.

According to Coulomb’s law the force exerted on charge q1 due to q2 is

| | | |

| |

where ̂ are unit vector pointing from q2 to q1 and |⃗ ⃗ | distance

| |
of q2 from q1

Hence the total force on charge q1 is

∑ ̂

Electric field
An electric field is set to exist at a point if a force of electrical origin is exerted on a stationary
charged body place at that point. Quantatively, the electric field or the electric intensity of
electric field strength ⃗ at a point is defined as the force experienced by a unit positive test
charge placed at that point without disturbing the position of source charge.

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As shown in figure suppose a test charge q0 experiences of force at the point P, then the
electric field at that point will be
⃗

Units and dimensions of electric field

-1
As the electric field is force per unit charge, so its SI unit is Newton per coulomb ,
equivalent to volt per metre ( -1)
The dimensions for ⃗ can be determined as follows:
[ ] [ ]

Physical significance of electric field

The force experienced by the test charge is different at different points so ⃗ also vary from
point to point. In general ⃗ is not single vector but a set of infinite vectors. Each point is
associated with the unique vector ⃗ so electric field is an example of vector field

By knowing electric field at any point, we can determine the force on a charge placed at that
point. The Coulomb force on a charge due to a source charge may be treated as two stage
process:
i. The source charge produces a definite field ⃗ at every point
ii. The value of ⃗ at any point determines the force on charge at that point. This
force is
Electrostatic force = charge X electric field

Electric field due to a point charge

A single point charge has the simplest electric field. As shown in figure, consider a point charge
q placed at the origin O. We wish to determine its electric field at the point P at a distance r
from it. For this, imagine a test charge place at point P. According to coulombs law the force
on the charge is
̂

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where ̂ is a unit vector in the direction from q to .
Electric field at point P is
⃗ ̂
The magnitude of the field is
⃗

Electric field due to a system of point charges

Consider a system of N point charges having position vector

with respect to the origin O. We wish to determine the electric field at point P
whose position vector is
According to Coulomb’s law, the force on charge test due to charge is
⃗⃗⃗ ̂

Where ̂ is a unit vector in the direction from to P and is the distance between
and P.
Hence the electric field at point P due to charge is
⃗⃗⃗
⃗⃗⃗⃗ ̂

Similarly, electric field at P due to charge is

⃗⃗⃗⃗ ̂
According to principle of superposition of electric fields, electric field at any point due to a
group of charges is equal to the vector sum of the electric field produced by a charge
individually at that point and all other charges are assume to be absent.

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Hence the electric field at point P due to the system of N charges is
⃗ ⃗⃗⃗⃗ ⃗⃗⃗⃗ ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗

⃗ ∑ ̂

Continuous charge distribution

In practice, we deal with charges much greater in magnitude then the charge on an electron,
so we can ignore the quantum nature of charges and imagine that the charge is spread in the
region in a continuous manner. Such a charge distribution is known as a continuous charge
distribution.
Calculation of the force on a charge due to a continuous charge distribution

As shown in figure consider a point charge q0 lying near a region of continuous charge
distribution. This continuous charge distribution can be imagined to consist of a large number
of small charges dq. According to Coulomb's law, the force on point charge q0 into smaller dq
is
⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ ̂

where ̂ , is a unit vector pointing from the small charge dq towards a point charge. By the
principle of superposition, the total force on charge q0 will be the vector sum of the forces
exerted by all such small charges and is given by
∫ ̂

There are three types of continuous charge distributions

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(a) Volume charge distribution: It is a charge distribution is spread over a three-
dimensional volume or region movie of space as shown in figure. We define the volume
charge density at any point in this volume as the charge contained per unit volume and
that point.

The SI unit for is coulomb per cubic metre .

For example if a charge q is distributed over the entire volume of a sphere of radius R
then its volume charge density is

The charge contained in small volume dV is

Total electrostatic force exerted on charge due to the entire volume V is given by
⃗⃗⃗⃗ ∫ ̂ ∫ ̂
Electric field due to the volume charge distribution and the location of charge is
⃗⃗⃗⃗ ∫ ̂
(b) Surface charge distribution
It is a charge distribution is spread over a two dimensional surface in space, as shown in
figure we define the surface charge density at any point on the surface has the charge
per unit area and that point.

SI unit for is

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 For example, if a charge q is uniformly distributed over the surface of a spherical
conductor of radius R then its surface charge density is

The charge contained in small area dS is

Total electrostatic force exerted on charge due to the entire surface S is given by
⃗⃗⃗ ∫ ̂
Electric field due to the surface charge distribution at the location of charge is
⃗⃗⃗⃗ ∫ ̂

(c) Line charge distribution

It is a charge distribution along a one-dimensional curve line L in space, as shown in fig.
We define the line charge density at any point on this line as the charge per unit length
of the line at that point.

The SI unit for is Cm-1

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 For example, if a charge q is uniformly distributed over a ring of radius R, then its linear
charge density is

The charge contained in a small length dL is

Total electrostatic force exerted on charge due to the entire length L is given by
⃗⃗⃗ ∫ ̂
Electric field due to the line charge distribution and the location of charge is
⃗⃗⃗⃗ ∫ ̂

Electric dipole: A pair of equal and opposite charges separated by a small distance is called an
electric dipole.
Dipole moment: A vector whose magnitude is either charge times the separation between the
two opposite charges and the direction is along the dipole axis from the negative to the
positive charge.

SI unit of dipole moment is Coulomb metre (Cm)

Examples of electric dipoles are common in nature. In molecules like
the centre of positive charges does not fall exactly over the centre
of negative charges. They have a permanent electric dipole moment.

Dipole field
The electric field produced by an electric dipole is called dipole field. This can be determined
by using (a) the formula for the field of a point charge and (b) the principle of superposition.

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Variation of dipole field with distance
The total charge of an electric dipole is zero but the electric field of an electric dipole is not
zero. This is because the charges and are separated by some distance, so the electric
fields due to them when added do not exactly cancel out. However, at distances much larger
than the dipole size the fields of and nearly cancel out. Hence we expect a
2
dipole field to fall off, at large distance, faster than 1/r typical of the field due to a single
charge. In fact a dipole field at large distances falls off as 1/r3

Dipole in non-uniform electric field

In a non-uniform electric field, the charges and of a dipole experience different forces
(not equal and opposite) at slightly different positions in the field and hence a net force ⃗⃗⃗ acts
on the dipole in a non-uniform field. Also, a net torque acts on the dipole which depends on
the location of the dipole in the non-uniform field.
⃗
where is the position vector of the center of the dipole.

When the dipole is parallel and antiparallel to ⃗⃗

In a non-uniform field if is parallel to ⃗ or antiparallel to ⃗ the net torque on the dipole is
zero (because forces on charges and become linear). However, there is a net force on
the dipole. As shown in Fig., when is parallel to ⃗ a net force acts on the dipole in the
direction of increasing ⃗ . When is anti-parallel to ⃗ a net force acts on the direction of
decreasing ⃗ .

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A comb run through dry hair attracts small pieces of paper
As the comb runs through hair, it acquires charge due to friction. When the charged code is
brought closer to an uncharged piece of paper, it polarizers the piece of paper i.e., induces on
net dipole moment in the direction of the field. But the electric field due to the comb on the
piece of paper is not uniform. It exerts a force in the direction of increasing field i.e., the piece
of paper gets attracted towards the comb.

Physical significance of electric dipoles

Electric dipoles have a common occurrence in nature. A molecule consisting of positive and
negative ions is an electric dipole. Moreover, complicated array of charges can be described
and analysed in terms of electric dipoles. The concept of electric dipole is used (i) in the study
of the effect of electric field on an insulator and (ii) in the study of radiation of energy for an
antenna.

Electric lines of force

An electric line of force may be defined as the curve along which a small positive charge would
tend to move when free to do so in an electric field and the tangent to which at any point
gives the direction of the electric field at that point. The lines of force do not really exist, they
are imaginary curves. Yet the concept of lines of force is very useful.

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Properties of electric lines of force
1. The lines of force are continuous smooth curves without any breaks.
2. The line of force start at positive charge and end at negative charges they cannot form
closed loops. If there is a single charge, then the lines of force will start or end at infinity.
3. The tangent to a line of force at any point gives the direction of the electric field at that
point.
4. No two lines of force can cross each other.

5. The lines of force are always normal to the surface of a conductor on which the charges are
in equilibrium.
6. The lines of force have a tendency to contract lengthwise. This explains attraction between
two unlike charges.
7. The lines of force do not pass through a conductor because the electric field inside a
charged conductor is zero.

Electric field lines for different charged conductors

(i) Field lines of a positive point charge.

(ii) Field lines on negative point charge.

(iii) Field lines of two equal and opposite point charges.

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 (iv) Field lines of two equal and positive point charges.

(v) Field lines of a positively charged plane conductor.

Electric flux
The electric flux through a given area held inside an electric field is the measure of the total
number of electric lines of force passing normally through that area.

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As shown in fig., if an electric field ⃗ passes normally through any area element then the
electric flux through this area is
As shown in fig., if the normal drawn to the area element makes an angle θ with the
uniform field ⃗ then the component of ⃗ normal to will be so that the electric flux is

Electric flux is a scalar quantity

SI unit of electric flux
Equivalently, SI unit of electric flux

Gauss's Theorem
Gauss Theorem states that the total flux through a closed surface is 1/ 0 times the net charge
enclosed by the closed surface. Mathematically, it can be expressed as

∫ ⃗ ⃗⃗⃗⃗

Proof. For the sake of simplicity, we prove Gauss's theorem for an isolated positive point
charge q. As shown in figure, suppose the surface S is a sphere of radius r centred on q. Then
surface S is a Gaussian surface.

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Electric field at any point on S is

This field points radially outward at all points on S. Also, any area element points radially
outwards, so it is parallel to ⃗ , i.e., θ = 0°
Flux through area ⃗⃗⃗⃗ is
d ⃗ ⃗⃗⃗⃗

Total flux through surface S is

This proves Gauss's theorem.

Gaussian surface
Any hypothetical closed surface enclosing a charge is called the Gaussian surface of that
charge. It is used to evaluate the surface integral of the electric field produced by the charge
enclosed by it, which, in turn, gives the total flux through the surface.

Importance
By a clever choice of Gaussian surface, we can easily find the electric fields produced by a
certain symmetric charge configuration which are otherwise quite difficult to evaluate by the
direct application of Coulomb's law and the principle of superposition.

Coulomb's law from Gauss's theorem

Consider an isolated positive point charge q. We select a spherical surface S of radius r
centered at charge q as the Gaussian surface.
By symmetry ⃗⃗⃗ has same magnitude at all points on S. Also ⃗⃗⃗ and ⃗⃗⃗⃗ at any point on S are
directed radially outward. Hence flux through area ⃗⃗⃗⃗ is
⃗⃗⃗⃗ ⃗⃗⃗⃗
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Net flux through a closed surface S is

Using Gauss's theorem,

The force on the point charge if placed on surface S will be

This proves the Coulomb's law.

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