Electric Charges

Welcome to Electromagnetism
Ed Copeland Arundel 205 e.j.copeland@sussex.ac.uk
http://www.pact.cpes.susx.ac.uk/users/edmundjc/emg_course.htm I am very grateful to Professor Dam Waddill for making his slides available to me for this course.
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Two kinds of charges: Positive and Negative Like charges repel - unlike charges attract Charge is conserved and quantized
1909 Robert Millikan : electric charge always occurs in integral multiples of the fundamental unit of charge, e. Q is the standard symbol for charge (units-Coulombs) Q = Ne ; e = 1.602 x 10-19 C, N is an integer Proton charge: + e : Electron charge: - e : Neutron charge: 0 Quarks charge : 1/3 e or 2/3 e How come? Never find isolated individual quarks
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Some details:
Lectures: Tue 11.30 and Thur 9.15 : Pev1-1A6. Workshop: Tue 18.00 : Pev1-1A1. Problem sheets: Hand in Monday following relevant workshop. Essay: Handed in first weds after Easter break. Office hour: Thur 15.00: Arundel 205 Course Book: Tipler, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 4th edition. All details to be found at:
http://www.pact.cpes.susx.ac.uk/users/edmundjc/emg_course.htm 2

Insulators and Conductors

Classify materials according to their ability to conduct electrical charge. Conductors: free moving charge (metal) Insulators: charge not readily transported (wood) Semiconductors: electrical properties between conductor and insulator (silicon)

Electric Charge and Electric Field

Todays menu Properties of Electric Charges Insulators and Conductors Coulombs Law The Electric Field The Electric Dipole
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Coulombs Law
1785 Charles Coulomb : fundamental law of electric force between two stationary charged particles. It is: inversely proportional to square of separation between particles directed along the line joining the particles proportional to the product of the two charges attractive if particles have charges of opposite sign and repulsive if charges have same sign

r QQ F12 = ke 1 2 2 r r
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r QQ F12 = ke 1 2 2 r r
F12 is the force on charge Q2 due to Q1 and r is the unit vector pointing from Q1 to Q2 r is the distance between Q1 and Q2 ke is Coulombs constant and has a value of 8.988 x 109 N.m2/C2

Reminder of direction of Coulomb Force

r r r= r r
F21 F12

+ 1

+ 2 2 F21 F12 2

F21

1 +

F12

r r

Q1

Recall F12 is force on charge 2 due to charge 1

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Coulombs constant ke in terms of the permittivity of free space 0.

Superposition Principle vital!

When more than two charges are present: resultant force on any one of them is equal to the vector sum of the forces exerted by each of the individual charges.

1 0= = 8.85 10-12 C2 /N m 2 4 ke
Coulombs law can be written as :

r QQ F12 = ke 1 2 2 r r

or

r F12 =

1 Q1Q2 r 4 0 r 2

r r r r F1 = F21 + F31 + F41 + L

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Lets compare Gravitational Force Coulomb Force

Example 1
3 point charges Q1 = Q2 = 2 C and Q3 = 4 C are arranged as shown. Find the resultant force on Q3.
Q Q
1 3 2

r QQ F12 = ke 1 2 2 r r
Attractive or repulsive

r MM F12 = G 1 2 2 r r
Only attractive

Q1 +
0.3 m

0.5 m +

F23 x F13

0.4 m

Fc ke 2 = for 2 protons Fg Gm 2 proton k = 8.99 109 Nm 2C 2 ; e = 1.6 10 19 C G = 6.67 10 11 Nm 2 kg 2 ; m p = 1.67 10 27 kg Fc = 1.24 1036 Fg
Why dont we worry about electric forces for macroscopic bodies?
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F13 = ke

(0 5

0.3 m

Q3

0.5 m

Q2 +

F = (9.0109 ) 13

(2.0106 )(4.0106 )

( 0.5)
= F13

= 0.29 N

F23 = ke

Q2 Q3

0 5m

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Continuation of Example 1
3 point charges Q1 = Q2 = 2 C and Q3 = 4 C are arranged as shown. Find the resultant force on Q 3.
y

Superposition principle for Electric Fields

0.5 m + F23 x F13

Q1 +
0.3 m

F = 0.29N 13

F23 = F13
0.4 = 0.8 cos = 0.5 0.3 = 0.6 sin = 0.5

0.4 m 0.3 m 0.5 m

( F13 ) x = F13 cos ( F13 ) y = F13 sin

Q3

If the field is due to more than one charge then the individual fields are added vectorially (superposition principle). r r r r r

E = E1 + E2 + E3 + E4 + ...
r Q E = ke 2i ri ri i

Q2 +
Fy = ( F13 ) y + ( F23 ) y Fy = F13 sin + F23 sin = 0 N

For a series of point charges the electric field is:

Fx = ( F13 ) x + ( F23 ) x = F13 cos + F23 cos Fx = 2 F13 cos = 2(0.29)(0.8) = 0.46 N

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ri is the distance from the ith charge to the point of evaluation ri is a unit vector from the ith charge to the point of evaluation, and Qi is the ith charge. 16

The Electric Field

Useful when describing a force that acts at a distance. Electric field at some point in space is defined as the electric force acting on a positive test charge, q0, placed at that point divided by the magnitude of the test charge. It is a vector quantity with units of N/C.

Example 2
Charges Q1 and Q2 are placed 0.6 m apart. Q1 = +5 C and Q2 = -5 C. Find the electric field at point P.
E1 = E2 = ke Q1 5.0 106 = (9.0 109 ) = 1.8 105 N/C r12 (0.5) 2 0.5 m

E1

E2

0.5 m

E x = E1 x + E 2 x E x = E1 cos + E 2 cos E x = 2 E1 cos

cos = 0.3 = 0.6 0.5

Q1

0.6 m

Q2

r r F E= q0
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Ex = 2(1.8105 )(0.6) = 2.2 105 N/C

E y = E1 y + E 2 y E y = E1 sin E 2 sin = 0 N/C

r E = Ex i + E y j r 5 E = 2.2 10 i N/C

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For point charges:

Electric dipoles
Electric dipole is a system of two equal and opposite charges Q a small distance L apart Electric dipole moment, p, is vector pointing from negative to positive charge with magnitude given by p=QL. If L is displacement vector of positive charge from negative charge, dipole moment is L
+

r
q0 + Q

r
F -

q0

-Q

p=QL

Qq0 r r F ke r 2 r Q = = ke 2 r E= q0 q0 r

r r p = QL

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Example 3

Given two opposite charges at a, and a, find P electric field and dipole moment on the x-axis -a a x -Q at a field point P which is a large distance +Q away compared to 2a. 1. Point P is a dist (x-a) from positive and dist (x+a) from neg charges. 2. Electric field at point P due to the two charges is:

r E=

kQ r k (Q) r 4axkQ r i+ i= 2 i (x a)2 (x + a)2 (x a 2 ) 2 r 4kaQ r i x3

3. For x>>a, can neglect a2 compared to x2 in the denominator. Electric field at P is: E

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3. For x>>a, can neglect a2 compared to x2 in the denominator. Electric field at P is:

r 4kaQ r E i x3
r r r r

4. Electric Dipole Moment Displacement is: L = 2a i p = 2aQ i Hence magnitude of E on x axis of the dipole a great distance away from it is :

E=

2kp x3

Thus the electric field far from a dipole is proportional to the dipole moment and decreases with the cube of the distance.
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