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HOME ELECTROSTATICS CLASS 12 AND IITJEE SUMMARY (PDF DOWNLOAD)
CLASS 12, ELECTROSTATICS AND ELECTRICITY, GENERAL, PHYSICS ARTICLES

Electrostatics class 12 and iitjee summary

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AUGUST 24, 2015 PHYSICSCATALYST 0 COMMENTS

Summary of electrostatics
This article is about the quick summary of electrostatics for class 12 and iitjee. You can also
download electrostatics quick summary PDF if you like and do not forget to share the page so that other
people also know about this article on electrostatics summary for class 12 and competitive exams like
IITJEE/PMT and all.
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.
2.

positive
negative

The figure given can give you the brief overview of what electric charge is all about

Concept map on electric charge

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 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.
2.
3.
4.

Charge is an scalar quantity

Electric charge is quantized
Electric charge is additive
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.

Coulombs 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.

Principle of superposition
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 q 1, q2, .., qn, then total force on charge
q1 according to principle of superposition is
F = F12 + F13 + . F1n
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 Coulombs Law at a glance have a look at the concept map given below

Coulombs Law concept map

For detailed explanation follow this link

Remember these points

1.
2.
3.

For each individual pair of charges there is a

dependence on the separation
For each pair there is a dependence on the product of charges, with repulsion for like charges and
attraction for unlike ones.
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

electric field concept map

It is important to note that:1.

2.
3.

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.
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.
In non uniform field, either the direction or the magnitude or both vary from point to point.

Electric lines of forces

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

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
The relative closeness of lines of forces indicates the strength of electric field at various places.
They crowd near each other in regions of strong electric field
They are far apart when the electric field is week.
In regions of constant electric field , the lines of forces are parallel straight lines.

Important properties of lines of forces

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Line of forces are continuous curves without any break

Two lines of forces can not cross at common point.
Lines of forces do not form a closed loop. They start a positive charges and end at negative
charges.
Lines of forces are imaginary
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
is defined as the work done in taking a positive
charge from a reference point (generally taken at infinity) to that point
in the presence of electric field.
Important Points
1.

If
is the work done in taking a point charge
point
is

2.
3.

Electrostatic potential is a scalar quantity. Its value may be positive or negative.

If Potential at infinity is chosen to be zero, potential due to a point charge at the origin is given by

4.

Electric potential at a point due to a given charge distribution is the algebraic sum of the potential
due to individual charge.
Unit of potential is Volt(joul/coulomb)

5.

Potential Difference

from infinity to point

, then electric potential at

1.
2.
3.

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

The potential difference between two points
and
is work done against electric field in in
taking a unit positive charge from
to .
If
is the work done against electric field in taking the unit positive charge from

4.
5.

to ,
and do not consider to forget the signs of both
and .
Potential difference is also a scalar quantity and its unit is Volt
The electric potential difference due to continuous distribution of charges is given as

6.

Relation between

and

:- Relation between electric field

and potential

is

or,
components of E are related to corresponding derivatives of V in the following manner

Equipotential surfaces
1.
2.

Surface over which the electric potential is same everywhere is called an equipotential surface.
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

Full and detailed notes on Electric potential can be read by following this link

Electric field intensity and potential due to different

charge distribution
1.

Due to infinitely long wire:

let be the charge per unit length of the wire
(a) Field intensity at a distance from the wire is
(b) Electric potential due to infinite wire can not be found but the potential difference between two

2.

points is given as
At a point on axis due to charged ring:-(a) Electric field at any axial point
charged ring of radius with charge is given as

due to a uniformly

where is the distance of point

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.
(b) Electric potential at this point
would be
(c) From above equations we can conclude that at the center electric field
and
when

3.

which is maximum value for potential .Electric field intensity is maximum

it is

also the field intensity and electric potential both are zero at infinity .
At the center of the half ring:If is the charge per unit length on the half ring of radius then electric field intensity at center of
the ring would be
and electric potential at center of the half ring would be

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

on the axis from the center of the disk then

let

be the distance of the point

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

above two equations we can conclude that
for very close point
:

From

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

Gausss Law
It states that total electric flux through a closed surface is equal to
the surface i.e.,

times the net charge

enclosed by

where
is an element of area; the direction of each element
to the surface at every point.

of

is along the outward drawn normal

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

For more notes and study material on Gausss Law you can visit this link and follow on from there.

Capacitance
I have already made a pdf document on the summary of this chapter and I will be providing the download
link below.
For more detailed notes on capacitance follow this link

Download links
Capacitance summary
Download electrostatics summary as PDF

Books recommended for Class 12 physics

1.
2.
3.

NCERT Solutions: Physics 12th

NCERT Exemplar Problems: Solutions Physics Class 12
Concepts of Physics Vol. 2 HC Verma

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Dinesh New Millennium Physics Class -XII (Set of 2 Vols) (Free Complete Solutions to NCERT
Textbook Problems & NCERT Exemplar Problems in Physics-XII)
Principles of Physics Extended (International Student Version) (WSE)
university physics with modern physics by Hugh D. Young 13th edition
CBSE Chapterwise Questions-Solutions Physics, Class 12
CBSE 15 Sample Question Paper: Physics for Class 12th
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