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More On Electric Field of Charge Distributions: August 17, 2016

This document is a lecture on evaluating the electric field due to charge distributions. It discusses calculating the electric field of a uniformly charged rod and conducting ring. For the rod, the rod is divided into small segments, each treated as a point charge. Integrating the electric field contributions of all segments gives the electric field components due to the rod. Similarly for the ring, it is divided into small segments and the x-component of electric field is integrated to obtain the total electric field along the ring axis. In both cases, the electric field is shown to approach that of a point charge when far from the distribution.

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57 views15 pages

More On Electric Field of Charge Distributions: August 17, 2016

This document is a lecture on evaluating the electric field due to charge distributions. It discusses calculating the electric field of a uniformly charged rod and conducting ring. For the rod, the rod is divided into small segments, each treated as a point charge. Integrating the electric field contributions of all segments gives the electric field components due to the rod. Similarly for the ring, it is divided into small segments and the x-component of electric field is integrated to obtain the total electric field along the ring axis. In both cases, the electric field is shown to approach that of a point charge when far from the distribution.

Uploaded by

yay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 15

Lecture 4

More on electric field of


charge distributions

August 17, 2016

Objectives

Evaluate the electric field at a point in space due to a system of

arbitrary charge distributions

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

2 / 37

Electric field of a charged rod

Example
A positive charge Q is
distributed uniformly
along the y -axis between
y = a and y = +a.
Find the electric field at
point P on the x-axis at a
distance x from the
origin.

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

3 / 37

Electric field of a charged rod

Divide the rod into many, many segments. Each segment would be very,
very short. Lets call their length dy .
Since one segment is very, very short, it can treated as a point particle,
with a very, very small electric field magnitude
dE = k

dq
r2

where dq is that very, very small charge of that very, very small segment.

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

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Electric field of a charged rod


But what is the separation r ? For a
segment at some location y , its
separation from point P is
p
x 2 + y 2.
dE = k

x2

dq
+ y2

Decompose the equation into its xand y - components.


dq
cos
+ y2
dq
dEy = k 2
sin
x + y2

dEx = k

Lecture 4

x2

August 17, 2016

5 / 37

Electric field of a charged rod

We can write cos and sin in terms of x and y .


x
x
=p
2
r
x + y2
y
y
sin = = p
2
r
x + y2

cos =

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

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Electric field of a charged rod


So
dq
x dq
cos k 2
x2 + y2
(x + y 2 )3/2
dq
y dq
dEy = k 2
sin k 2
2
x +y
(x + y 2 )3/2

dEx = k

Now we want to sum up the contributions of all the segments. We


integrate.
Z
x dq
Ex =
k 2
2 3/2
all charges (x + y )
Z
y dq
Ey =
k 2
2 3/2
all charges (x + y )

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

7 / 37

Electric field of a charged rod


We want to convert dq to dy . We can do this by using the fact that the
linear charge density of the rod is a constant.
Q
Q
dq
dq = dy
=
2a
dy
2a
So we can write the previous integration to

Z +a
Q
x 2a
dy
x dq

k 2
Ex =
k 2
2 3/2
(x + y 2 )3/2
a
all charges (x + y )

Z
Z +a
Q
y 2a
dy
y dq
Ey =
k 2

k 2
2 3/2
(x + y 2 )3/2
all charges (x + y )
a
Z

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

8 / 37

Electric field of a charged rod

Performing the integration, we get


Q
Ex = k
; Ey = 0 .
x x 2 + a2
Sanity check: what happens when x is large?
Ex = k q

Q
: x 2


=k

x 
x 2+a2

Q
x2

The electric field is similar to a point particle.

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

9 / 37

Exercise!

A positive charge Q is uniformly distributed around a conducting ring of


radius a. Find the electric field at a point P on the ring axis at a distance
x from its center.
Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

10 / 37

Exercise!

Divide the ring into many, many segments. Each segment would be very,
very short. Lets call their length ds.
Since one segment is very, very short, it can treated as a point particle,
with a very, very small electric field magnitude
dE = k

dq
r2

where dq is that very, very small charge of that very, very small segment.

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

11 / 37

Exercise!

But what is the separation r ?


For a segment at some
location y , its separation

from point P is x 2 + a2 .
dE = k

Lecture 4

dq
x 2 + a2

August 17, 2016

12 / 37

Exercise!
By symmetry, the net electric
field will lie on the x-axis.
Thus we only need to
compute for the x-component
of the contribution of each
segment:
dq
cos
x 2 + a2
dq x
=k 2
x + a2 r
dq
x

=k 2
2
2
x + a x + a2
x dq
=k 2
(x + a2 )3/2

dEx = k

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

13 / 37

Exercise!

Now we want to sum up the contributions of all the segments. We


integrate the above expression over all segments:
Z
x dq
Ex =
k 2
2 3/2
all charges (x + a )

Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

14 / 37

Exercise!
Note that k, x and a can be taken out of the integration because it is a
constant for any segment in the ring. So
Z
x
Ex = k 2
dq
(x + a2 )3/2 all charges
= k

xQ
.
(x 2 + a2 )3/2

What happens when x is large?


Ex = k

xQ
: x 23/2

(x 2+a2
)

=k

Q
x2

The electric field is similar to a point particle.


Lecture 4

August 17, 2016

15 / 37

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