Lecture 04

The Electric Field

Chapter 22 - HRW

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 Physics 2049 News
 WebAssign was due today
 Another one is posted for
Friday
 You should be reading
chapter 22; The Electric Field.
 This is a very important concept.
 It is a little “mathy”
 There will be a QUIZ on Friday.
 Materialfrom chapters 21-22.
 Studying Works!

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This is WAR
Ming the
merciless

this guy is
MEAN!

 You are fighting the enemy on the

planet Mongo.
 The evil emperor Ming’s forces are
behind a strange green haze.
 You aim your blaster and fire …
but ……

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Nothing Happens! The Green
thing is a Force Field!

The Force may not be with you ….

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 Side View

The
FORCE FIELD
Force

|Force| Big!

o
Position

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Properties of a FORCE
FIELD
 It is a property of the position in
space.
 There is a cause but that
cause may not be known.
 The force on an object is
usually proportional to some
property of an object which is
placed into the field.

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EXAMPLE: The
Gravitational Field That
We Live In.

m M
mg
Mg

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The gravitational field:
g
 The gravitational field strength is
defined as the Force per unit
mass that the field creates on an
object
 This becomes
g=(F/m)=(mg/m)=g
 The field strength is a VECTOR.
 For this case, the gravitational
field is constant.
 magnitude=g (9.8 m/s)
 direction= down

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Final Comment on
Gravitational Field:

Force mg
g  g
unit _ mass m
Even though we know what is causing
the force, we really don’t usually think
about it.

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Newton’s Law of
Gravitation

MEarth
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 The Calculation
mM
FG 2
REarth
F M
g G 2
m REarth
24
11 6 x10
g  6.67 x10  6 2
(6.4 x10 )

g  9.77 m / s 2


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Not quite correct ….

Earth and the Moon (in

background), seen from space)

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More better … Moon

Fmoon
m

mg

FEarth

MEarth
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To be more precise …
 g is caused by
 Earth (MAJOR)
 moon (small)
 Sun (smaller yet)
 Mongo (extremely teeny tiny)
 g is therefore a function of
position on the Earth and even
on the time of the year or day.

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 The Electric Field E

 In a SIMILAR WAY
 We DEFINE the ELECTRIC FIELD
STRENGTH AS BEING THE FORCE
PER UNIT CHARGE.
 Place a charge q at a point in space.
 Measure (or sense) the force on the
charge – F
 Calculate the Electric Field by
dividing the Force by the charge,
F  qE
F  Newtons 
E 
q  Coulomb 
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Week of February Electric Field 16
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Electric Field Near a Charge

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Two (+) Charges

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Two Opposite Charges

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A First Calculation

A Charge

The spot where we want

q to know the Electric Field

Place a “test charge

at the point and
measure the Force on it.

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Doing it
qQ Q
F  k 2 runit
r A Charge
F Q
E   k 2 runit
q r
r
F

The spot where we want

q to know the Electric Field

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General-

qQ
F  k 2 runit
r
F Q
E   k 2 runit
q r
General
Fj Qj
E   E j     k 2 r j ,unit
q rj

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Continuous Charge Distribution

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 ymmetry

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Let’s Do it Real Time

Concept – Charge per

unit length 

dq=  ds

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The math

ds  rd 
Ey  0 Why?

0
dq
E x  (2)  k 2 cos( )
0
r
0
rd 
E x  (2)  k 2 cos( )
0
r
0
2k 2k
Ex  
r 0
cos( )d 
r
sin( 0 )

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 A Harder Problem setup


dE dEy

r 

A line of charge x
dx
=charge/length

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 L

dx cos( )
2
Ex  k  2
L (r  x )
2

2

r
cos( ) 
(r  x )2 2

rdx
L/2
E x  2k 
0
(r  x )
2 2 3/ 2

L/2
dx
E x  2kr 
0
(r  x )
2 2 3/ 2

(standard integral)

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 Completing the Math
Doing the integration :
kL
Ex 
 L2

r r   
2

 4
In the limit of a VERY long line :
L
 L2

r   
2

 4
kl 2k 1/r dependence
Ex  
L r
r 
2

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Dare we project this??

 Point Charge goes as 1/r2

 Infinite line of charge goes as
1/r1
 Could it be possible that the
field of an infinite plane of
charge could go as 1/r0? A
constant??

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 The Geometry

Define surface charge density

=charge/unit-area
(z2+r2)1/2
dq=dA

dA=2rdr

dq= x dA = 2rdr

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 dq cos( ) k 2rdr z
dE z  k 
(z2+r2)1/2 z2  r2  
z2  r2 z2  r2  
1/ 2

R
 rdr
E z  2kz 
0 z 2
r 
2 3/ 2

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 Final Result

   z 
E z   1  

2
 0  z 2
 R 2

(z2+r2)1/2 When R  ,

Ez 
2 0

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Look at the “Field Lines”

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What did we learn in
this chapter??
 We introduced the concept of
the Electric FIELD.
FIELD
 We may not know what causes
the field. (The evil Emperor
Ming)
 If we know where all the charges
are we can CALCULATE E.
 E is a VECTOR.
 The equation for E is the same
as for the force on a charge from
Coulomb’s Law but divided by
the “q of the test charge”.

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What else did we learn
in this chapter?
 We introduced continuous
distributions of charge rather
than individual discrete
charges.
 Instead of adding the individual
charges we must INTEGRATE
the (dq)s.
 There are three kinds of
continuously distributed
charges.

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Kinds of continuously
distributed charges
 Line of charge
 or sometimes  = the charge per unit length.
 dq=ds (ds= differential of length along the
line)
 Area
 = charge per unit area
 dq=dA
 dA = dxdy (rectangular coordinates)
 dA= 2rdr for elemental ring of charge
 Volume
 =charge per unit volume
 dq=dV
 dV=dxdydz or 4r2dr or some other
expressions we will look at later.

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The Sphere

r dq

thk=dr

dq=dV= x surface area x thickness

= x 4r2 x dr

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Summary

qQ
F  k 2 runit
r
F Q
E   k 2 runit
q r
General
Fj Qj
E   E j     k 2 r j ,unit
q rj
dV (r ) dA(r ) ds(r )
E  k 2
 k 2
 k
r r r2
(Note: I left off the unit vectors in the last
equation set, but be aware that they should
be there.)

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To be remembered …

 If the ELECTRIC FIELD at a point

is E, then
 E=F/q (This is the definition!)
 Using some advanced
mathematics we can derive from
this equation, the fact that:

F  qE

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Example:

The electric field in a region of space

is given by the expression :
E  3x 2
What force would a 0.5 coulomb
charge experience if it is placed
at the coordinate (2,8)?

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Solution

This is an easy one!

E  3x  3  4  12( N / C )
2

The y coordinate doesn' t matter.

The force  qE  0.5 C 12 (N/C)
or
F  6 Newtons

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 In the Figure, particle 1 of charge q1 = -9.00q and
particle 2 of charge q2 = +2.00q are fixed to an x
axis.

(a) As a multiple of distance L, at what

coordinate on the axis is the net electric field of
the particles zero?
[1.89] L  

(b) Plot the strength of the electric field as a

function of position (z).

q1 = -9q q2=+2q

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Let’s do it backwards…
Take an arbitrary position x which
for the heck of it has a coordinate
that is greater than L. Then ...
 2q 9q 
E ( x)  k   2 
 ( x  L)
2
x 
Let x  αL
 2 9 
E ( x)  qk   2 2 
 (L  L)  L 
2

qk  2 9 
E ( x)  2   2 
L  (  1)  
2

We can look at this as a function

of  and just plot the quantity in
brackets. Let' s use EXCEL for this.

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EXCEL

a First Term Second Term Sum

-3 0.13 -1.00 -0.88
-2.9 0.13 -1.07 -0.94
-2.8 0.14 -1.15 -1.01
-2.7 0.15 -1.23 -1.09
-2.6 0.15 -1.33 -1.18
-2.5 0.16 -1.44 -1.28
-2.4 0.17 -1.56 -1.39
-2.3 0.18 -1.70 -1.52
-2.2 0.20 -1.86 -1.66
-2.1 0.21 -2.04 -1.83
-2 0.22 -2.25 -2.03
-1.9 0.24 -2.49 -2.26
-1.8 0.26 -2.78 -2.52

ETC ….
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 Bracket
100.00

50.00

??
0.00
-2 -1.8 -1.6 -1.4 -1.2 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

-50.00

-100.00

alpha
alpha=1.89

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The mystery solved!!!
For x  L
 2q 9q 
E ( x)  k   2 
 ( x  L)
2
x 
For x  L
  2q 9q 
E ( x)  k   2 
 ( x  L)
2
x 
For x  0
  2q 9q 
E ( x)  k   2 
 ( x  L)
2
x 
.
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BE CAREFULL!
Electric Field 47
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 In the Figure, the four particles are fixed in
place and have charges q1 = q2 = +5e, q3 = +3e,
and q4 = -12e. Distance d = 9.0 mm. What is
the magnitude of the net electric field at point P
due to the particles?

                                               

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 Figure 22-34 shows two charged particles on an
x axis, q = -3.20 10-19 C at x = -4.20 m and q =
 

+3.20 10-19 C at x = +4.20 m.

 

(a) What is the magnitude of the net electric field

produced at point P at y = -5.60 m?
[7.05e-11] N/C
(b) What is its direction?
[180]° (counterclockwise from the positive x
axis)

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Figure 22-40 shows two parallel nonconducting rings
arranged with their central axes along a common line.
Ring 1 has uniform charge q1 and radius R; ring 2 has
uniform charge q2 and the same radius R. The rings
are separated by a distance d = 3.00R. The net
electric field at point P on the common line, at
distance R from ring 1, is zero. What is the ratio
q1/q2?
[0.506]

                                                       

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In the Figure, eight charged particles form a square
array; charge q = +e and distance d = 1.8 cm. What
are the magnitude and direction of the net electric field
at the center?
                                            

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