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Electromagnetism: Physics 15b

The document discusses electric charge and Coulomb's law governing the electrostatic force between charges. It introduces the concepts of charge quantization, conservation of charge, and the inverse square relationship between force and distance described by Coulomb's law. The principle of superposition and the path independence of work done by conservative electrostatic forces are also covered.

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67 views9 pages

Electromagnetism: Physics 15b

The document discusses electric charge and Coulomb's law governing the electrostatic force between charges. It introduces the concepts of charge quantization, conservation of charge, and the inverse square relationship between force and distance described by Coulomb's law. The principle of superposition and the path independence of work done by conservative electrostatic forces are also covered.

Uploaded by

nallimini
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
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Electromagnetism

Physics 15b
Lecture #1
Coulombs Law
Electric Charge, Force, and Energy
Purcell 1.11.6

Todays Goals
Electric charge
Quantization, charge symmetry
Conservation

Coulombs Law
Forces between two charged objects
Inverse-square law
CGS units vs. SI units

Superposition Principle

2-body N-body of charges

Work and energy

Conservative force

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
(17361806)

Four Forces
There are 4 fundamental forces in Nature
Gravity
Long distance. Keeps planets and satellites in orbits
Classical model (Newtonian) simple and accurate
Modern model (General Relativity) complex and more accurate
Electromagnetic force
Long distance. Responsible for most daily things
Classical model (Maxwell) simple, accurate, and identical to the
modern model
Strong nuclear force
Short distance. Keeps protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei
Weak nuclear force
Short distance. Responsible for nuclear b-decays

Electrical Charge
Objects dont always respond to electricity

Something must be added or, they must be charged

Experiments have told us:


Charges can be positive or negative (Franklin)
They come in small same-sized units (Millikan)
Each unit is so small, and the number of units in human-size
object so large (~1023), it looks like continuous

Intrinsic property of the elementary particles


Proton is positively charged
Electron is negatively charged by the same amount

e = Elementary Charge

Charge Symmetry
What is positive (or negative) is just a convention

Franklin could have named them oppositely

Elementary particles have oppositely-charged anti-particles


Particle
Proton

Antiparticle
+e

Electron e
Neutron

Antiproton

Positron

+e

Antineutron

Physical laws are almost


unchanged if the positive
and negative charges are
replaced

Small catch: Universe made exclusively of particles


Just so, i.e. it started that way and stayed that way?
Only in our neighborhood, i.e. this galaxy?
Small violation of the charge symmetry?

Conservation of Charge
Charge cannot be created or destroyed

You can only move them from


one object to another

Total charge of an isolated


system is conserved
True even in extreme conditions
where particle are destroyed
and created
Example from high-energy collision
of an electron and a positron

e + e + + +

Demo: charge conservation

An event from
the CLEO Experiment
Courtesy of A. Foland

Coulombs Law
Electric force (F) between two charges (q1 and q2) can work
over a distance (r)
Smaller r stronger F
Larger r weaker F

F1

Coulomb found

F2 = k

q1q2
r212

q1

q2

r21

F2

Proportional to both charges

r21

Along the line connecting the charges


Inversely proportional to the (distance)2

NB: definition of the unit vector

r
r

Parallel to the original r, with the length

r = 1

Units
Two systems of units: CGS vs. SI (Systm Internationale)
CGS

SI

Fundamental Units cm, g, s m, kg, s, ampere (A)

In CGS, Coulombs Law (with k = 1) defines the unit of charge

F[dyne] =

q1[esu]q2 [esu]
r21[cm]2

1esu = 1cm 1dyne


electrostatic unit

In SI, the unit of charge is coulomb (C) = ampere x second

F[N] = k

q1[C]q2 [C]

More often:

r21[m]2

1
4 0

k = 8.9875 109 N m 2 C2
9.0 109 N m 2 C2

0 = 8.8542 1012 C2 N m 2
permittivity of vacuum

Conversion Table
SI Units

CGS Units

Energy

1 joule (J)

= 107 erg

Force

1 newton (N)

= 105 dyne

Electric Charge

1 coulomb (C)

= 3 x 109 esu

Electric Current

1 ampere (A)

= 3 x 109 esu/sec

Electric Potential

3 x 102 volt (V) = 1 statvolt

Electric Field

3 x 104 V/m

= 1 statvolt/cm

Elementary Charge e

1.6 x 1019 C

= 4.8 x 1010 esu

3 = 2.99892458 (exact)
See Table E.1 (p.475) of Purcell for more

We will stick with CGS most of the time (as Purcell does)

Real-world examples may have to use SI

Inverse-Square Laws
Electrostatic force and gravity share the r-dependence

Fe = k

q1q2
r

Fg = G

m1m2
r

Inverse-square
laws

Much of what you know about gravity will apply to electricity

k = 1

Difference 1: constants

8
2
2
G = 6.672 10 dyne cm g

1 esu

1 esu

1g

1g

1 dyne
0.00000007 dyne

1 cm

Electrostatic Force vs. Gravity


Difference 2: signs
Charge or Mass
Force
Electrostatic positive or negative attractive or repulsive
Gravity
only positive
only attractive
Since electrostatic force is so strong, large objects tend to
contain roughly equal numbers of protons and electrons

Net charge is zero, or quite small

Electrostatic force is important inside or between atoms

Thats physics and chemistry

Gravity is important for astronomical objects

Superposition Principle
Suppose we have many charges distributed in space

What is total force on charge Q


from all the other charges?

Principle of Superposition
Just add them up as vectors
For 3 charges (picture right)

q1q3
r312

r31 +

q2 q3
r322

Fj = Fjk = q j
k =1
k j

Force on the j-th charge

k =1
k j

q3
F31

r32

F32

Generally for N charges


N

r32

r31

F3 = F31 + F32 =

q2

q1

qk
rjk2

r jk

F3
Sum over k, skipping j

Work against Gravity


Work is defined (in physics) by W = force distance

Slope and gravity from 15a:

J.E. Hoffman

W = mg sin 1 L21 + h 2
= mg

h
L +h
2
1

W = mg sin 2 L22 + h 2

L21 + h 2

= mgh

= mg

h
L +h
2
2

L22 + h 2

= mgh

Work against gravity does not depend on the angle of the slope
Gravity is a conservative force

Conservative Force
With a conservative force (such as gravity)
Work is path-independent : depends on the initial and final positions,
but not on the path taken between
Work is reversible : WAB = WBA
You can store your work and get it back later
Energy U can be defined as a function of the positions, so that
WAB = U(B) U(A)
For gravity, U(h) = mgh

Electrostatic force is conservative


It must be Same inverse-square law as gravity!
In fact any force in the form F = f (r) r is conservative
Will have some more to say in Chapter 2

Two Charges
Bring two charges from very far away to a distance r12

q1

r12

q2

ds

F
r=

Work is

W = F ds =

r12

q1q2
qq
r ( drr ) = 1 2
2
r
r12
r=

Using r = as the reference point (U = 0) we can define the


electrostatic energy of the two-charge system as

U=

q1q2
r12

Note that it doesnt matter which charge is moved


It doesnt matter if the path is not straight

One More Charge


Bring a third charge to the system

q1

r13

r12

q3
r23

q2

ds

F32
F31

r=

W = (F31 + F32 ) ds = F31 ds + F32 ds

Superposition Principle allows us to do the integration in pieces


Each piece is the energy of a two-charge system, which is pathindependent

Total energy for the three-charge system is

U=

q1q2 q1q3 q2 q3
+
+
r12
r13
r23

N-Charge System
Electrostatic energy of an N-charge system is

q j qk
1 N
U =
2 j =1 k j rjk

The double sum runs j = 1 N and k = 1 N, but skipping j = k


takes care of the double-counting of, e.g. (j, k) = (1, 2) and (2, 1)

Remember: U = 0 is defined as when all charges are very


far away from each other

Summary
Electric charge = Source and recipient of electric forces

Positive and negative; conserved; and quantized

Coulombs Law F2 =

q1q2
r212

r21

F1

q1

q2

r21

Inverse-square law same as gravity

Multiple charges Superposition Principle Fj =


Electrostatic force is conservative

F
k j

F2

jk

Electrostatic energy depends only on the positions of the charges


For 2-body:
For N-body:
N
qq

U=

q1q2
r12

U=

1
j k

2 j =1 k j rjk

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