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Summary of electrostatics
In electrostatics we deal with the electric effects of charges at rest.
Electric charge can be defined as is the intrinsic characteristic that is
associated with fundamental particles due to which they produce and
experience electrical and magnetic effects. Charges are of two types

1. positive
2. negative
The figure given can give you the brief overview of what electric charge is all
about

Always note that any material or body in its normal condition is electrically
neutral

How to charge a body A body can be charged either by friction, conduction

or by induction

Charging by friction If we pass a comb through hairs, comb becomes

electrically charged and can attract small pieces of paper. Many such solid
materials are known which on rubbing attract light objects like light feather,
bits of papers, straw etc. So the phenomenon of production of charges in

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material or body due to friction, as in case of above examples, is called
frictional electricity.

Charging by conduction Phenomenon of charge transfer where a charged

body is placed in contact with another body so that transfer of electrons
takes place from one body to another is called charging by conduction.

Charging by induction Electrostatic induction is a redistribution of

electrical charge in an object, caused by the influence of nearby charges. In
the presence of a charged body, an insulated conductor develops a positive
charge on one end and a negative charge on the other end.

Properties of electric charge

1. Charge is an scalar quantity

2. Electric charge is quantized
3. Electric charge is additive
4. Electric charge is conserved
Conductors allow large scale movement of electric charge through them,
insulators do not. In metals the mobile charges are electrons; in electrolytes
both positive and negative ions are mobile.

Coulomb’s Law

The electric force exerted on each other by two point charged and ,
separated by distance , are proportional to the product of , and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between them. They act along the
line joining the two charges. These forces are attractive if the charges
involved are unlike charges and repulsive if the charges involved are like
charges. Mathematically,

or

Here

is the constant of proportionality. Electric forces exerted by two charges on

each other are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

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Principle of superposition

1. Electrostatic force of interaction between two point charges is

independent of the presence of other charges.
If a system of charges has n number of charges say q1, q2 ……….. qn,
then total force on charge q1 according to principle of superposition is
2. F = F12 + F13 + ……………………………. F1n
3. Where F12 is force on q1 due to q2 and F13 is force on q1 due to q3 and
so on.
To have a look at Coulomb’s Law at a glance have a look at the concept map
given below

For detailed explanation follow this link

Please Note that
1. For each individual pair of charges there is a dependence on the
separation

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2. For each pair there is a dependence on the product of charges, with
repulsion for like charges and attraction for unlike ones.
3. For many charges, the force on any one particular charge can be found
as a vector sum by using the superposition principle.

Electrostatic Field

Electric field is the region surrounding an electric charge or a group of

charges in which another charged particle experiences a force of attraction
or repulsion.

Theoretically electric field extends up to infinity but practically but practically

electric field is not detectable beyond a certain distance.

Some Points about Electric field can be revised using the following concept
map

It is important to note that:-

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1. Electric field at a point depends only on the sources and not on the test
charge. It is a vector sum of contributions one from each source charge.
2. An electric field is said to be uniform in a certain region of space if both
direction and magnitude of E are same at all points.
3. In non-uniform field, either the direction or the magnitude or both vary
from point to point.

Electric lines of forces

1. A line of force is a line drawn in such a way that the tangent at each
point on the line gives the direction of electric field at that point
2. The relative closeness of lines of forces indicates the strength of electric
field at various places.
3. They crowd near each other in regions of strong electric field
4. They are far apart when the electric field is week.
5. In regions of constant electric field, the lines of forces are parallel
straight lines.

Important properties of lines of forces

1. Line of forces are continuous curves without any break

2. Two lines of forces cannot cross at common point.
3. Lines of forces do not form a closed loop. They start a positive charges
and end at negative charges.
4. Lines of forces are imaginary
5. These lines of forces are so drawn so that their number per unit cross-
sectional area in a region is proportional to intensity of electric field.

Electrostatic Potential

Definition:- In electrostatics electric potential at any point say P is defined as

the work done in taking a positive charge from a reference point (generally
taken at infinity) to that point P in the presence of electric field.

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Important Points
1. If W is the work done in taking a point charge q from infinity to point
W
P, then electric potential at point P is V =
q
2. Electrostatic potential is a scalar quantity. Its value may be positive or
negative.
3. If Potential at infinity is chosen to be zero, potential due to a point
1 q
charge q at the origin is given by V =
4π ε0 r
4. Electric potential at a point due to a given charge distribution is the
algebraic sum of the potential due to individual charge.
5. Unit of potential is Volt(joule/coulomb)

Potential Difference

1. Electric potential difference is the difference of potential between two

points.
2. The potential difference between two points A and B is work done
against electric field in in taking a unit positive charge from A to B.
3. If W is the work done against electric field in taking the unit positive
charge from
W
A to B, VB − VA =
q
and do not consider to forget the signs of both W and q.
4. Potential difference is also a scalar quantity and its unit is Volt
5. The electric potential difference due to continuous distribution of
charges is given as
1 dq
V =∫
4π ε0 r
6. Relation between E and V :- Relation between electric field E and
potential V is
dV = − E ⋅ dr
or, dV = − ( Ex dx + E y dy + Ez dz )
components of E are related to corresponding derivatives of V in the
following manner
dV dV dV
Ex = , Ey = , Ez =
dx dy dz

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Equipotential surfaces

1. Surface over which the electric potential is same everywhere is called

an equipotential surface.
2. Equipotential surfaces are graphical way to represent potential
distribution in an electric field.

Electric Potential Energy

Electric potential energy of a test charge at any point in the electric field is
the work done against the electric forces to bring the charge from infinity to
point under consideration. Mathematically, potential energy of test charge q’
at any distance r from charge q is given by

Electric field intensity and potential due to different charge

distribution

1. Due to infinitely long wire:

Let λ be the charge per unit length of the wire
λ
(a) Field intensity at a distance r from the wire is E =
2π ε0 r
(b) Electric potential due to infinite wire cannot be found but the
potential difference between two points is given as
λ r
VB − VA = − ln B
2π ε0 rA
2. At a point on axis due to charged ring:-
(a) Electric field at any axial point P due to a uniformly charged
ring of radius r with charge q is given as
qx
E= 3
4π ε0 ( x 2 + r 2 ) 2
where x is the distance of point P from the center of the ring.
Electric field is directed away from the ring if it is positively
charged and towards it if it is negatively charged.

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q
(b) Electric potential at this point P would be V =
4π ε0 x 2 + r 2
(c) From above equations we can conclude that at the center
q
electric field E=0 and V = which is maximum value for
4π ε0 r
potential. Electric field intensity is maximum when
r
x=±
2
it is
1 3 q
Emax = ⋅
4π ε0 2 r2
also the field intensity and electric potential both are zero at
infinity .
3. At the center of the half ring:-
If λ is the charge per unit length on the half ring of radius r then
electric field intensity at center of the ring would be
λ
E=
2π ε0 r
and electric potential at center of the half ring would be
λ
V=
4ε0
4. Uniformly charged disk:-
If is the total amount of charge on a disk of radius then surface
charge density of the disk would be

let be the distance of the point on the axis from the center of the
disk then electric field intensity at point would be

Its direction will be along the axis. For positively charged particles, it
would be away from the disk and for negatively charged it is towards
the disk.
Now electric potential at point P will be

From above two equations we can conclude that

for very close point

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For a very far away point

Electric Dipole:
Electric dipole is a set of two equal and opposite charges that are
separated by small finite distance.
If is the distance between two charges and then electric
dipole moment is given as

Electric field due to dipole

On axis of the dipole

direction would be along the direction of dipole moment.

On equatorial point

Direction would be opposite to the direction of dipole moment and

potential would be zero.

Torque on a dipole in an external field

Potential energy of a dipole in an electrostatic field

Gauss’s Law
It states that total electric flux through a closed surface is equal
to times the net charge enclosed by the surface i.e.,

where is an element of area; the direction of each

element of is along the outward drawn normal to the surface at
every point.

It is the net charge enclosed in the surface that matters in Gauss’s
law but the total flux of electric field E depends also on the surface
chosen not merely on the charge enclosed.
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So if you have information about distribution of electric charge
inside the surface you can find electric flux through that surface
using Gauss’s Law.

Again if you have information regarding electric flux through any
closed surface then total charge enclosed by that surface can also
be easily calculated using Gauss’s Law.

Surface on which Gauss’s Law is applied is known as Gaussian
surface which need not be a real surface.

Gaussian surface can be an imaginary geometrical surface which
might be empty space or it could be partially or fully embedded in a
solid body.

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