Physics Laboratory Report
Title PHYS 121A – Electric Field
by Point Charges
Lab number and Title: LAB 201
Electric Field by Point Charges.
Name: Alvaro Heredia Gil Group ID:
Date of Experiment: 08 /01/ 2024 Date of Report Submission: 02 /15/ 2024
Course & Section Number: Instructor’s Name: Matias Daniel de
Almeida
Phys121A-032
Partners’ Names: Marwa Ibrahim,
Daniel Chica and Nick Davis.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 OBJECTIVES
The objective of this lab is to compute electric field and corresponding
field lines formed by point charges using MATLAB.
1.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
There are three types of charges, positive (protons), neutral (neutrons) and
negative (electrons). When positive and negative charges in a body are
equal, the body doesn’t have charge. If there is an excess of positive or
negative charges, the body will have a positive or negative charge.
We know that charges with same sign repel each other and charges with
opposite signs attract each other. This means that there is a force of
attraction or repulsion acting on the charges. Charles Coulomb, was the
first to make a quantitative investigation of this force and concluded that
the magnitude of the force between two point charges A and B, separated by a
distance r can be calculated with (1). Where k is Coulomb's constant =
8.9876*10^9 Nm2/C2. F is proportional to the product of the magnitudes of
the charges q1 and q2, and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance r between their centers
(1)
An electric field(field of electric forces) is present in the region of
space around a charge object (source charge q). When another charged object
(test charge) enters the electric field, an electric force acts on it. The
electric field vector E (2) at a position of a positive test charge is
defined as the electric force F due to the source charge acting on the test
charge divided by the test charge q.
(2)
The direction of an electric field at any point of the test charge is same
as that of the electric force on the positive test charge. The magnitude of
electric field is the electric force strength per unit charge. The unit of
an electric field is N/C.
The electric field lines are widely used to visualize the electric field in
a pictorial representation. The electric fields lines, are tangent to the
electric field vector at each point of the space. Also, the density of the
lines is equivalent to the electric field intensity. In this case (3) it is
decomposed in x, y components.
(3)
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
PART 1
This part of the experiment is an introduction to manipulating electric fields
in MATLAB. We will modify MATLAB code to change the values of an electric
field. The parameter that we will change will be the value of the loads and we
will obtain a graph of it.
First we use two charges of 5 micro coulombs, then we change one of the charges
to -5 micro coulombs.
PART 2
This part of the experiment we use the two dimensions x, y. We define an
electric field as in the previous section using charges of 2 micro coulombs.
Then we will do the same, changing one of the charges by -2 micro coulombs.
3 RESULTS
3.1 EXPERIMENTAL DATA
PART 1
Q: Why it is important to exclude the point x=1 and x=-1?
A: Because the electric field is created around the charges but not right
where the charge is located.
Q: We already know that the electric field varies as the square of the
distance between two point charges. Why do the equations for electric field
above vary as distance cubed in the denominator?
A: That happens because substituting the polar equation that is equivalent
to cos (Theta) and cos (90-theta) in the electric field equation, the result
is r^3 in the denominator.
Q: Make a plot total electric field from x=-2.1 and x=2.1.
Does it equal 0 at the origin?
Would you expect it?
Assume that the two charges remain fixed. If you place appositive test
charge at the origin would the test charge be at a point of stable
equilibrium?
Why or why not?
A: Yes, it equals 0 at the origin. I expected it because at the middle of
the distance between both charges the electric field has same magnitude but
opposite direction, so the sum of both equals 0. That is why if we place a
positive charge at the origin, it will remain at stable equilibrium. The
total electric field on it is equal to 0, so the force is equal to 0.
In this graph, both charges have the same sign.
Q: Change the sign of one of the charges.
Does the electric field equal to 0 at the origin?
Would you expect it?
If you place a positive test charge at the origin would the test charge be
at a point of stable equilibrium?
Why or why not?
A: The electric field is not zero at the origin. Like the charges have
opposite sign, at the distance between the charges, both electric fields
have the same direction, so are added. That is why if we place a positive
charge at the origin, it will move towards the negative charge, because it
would be repelled by the positive charge and attracted by the negative
charge.
In this graph both charges have same magnitude but opposite sign.
PART 2
This graph shows the electric field of two positive charges with the same
magnitude.
This graph shows the electric field generated by two charges with same
magnitude but opposite sign
4 ANALYSIS and DISCUSSION
In this laboratory we have met the objective. We have used MATLAD to represent
an electric field created by to point charges.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In summary, in this experiment we learned how to use MATLAB to represent
electric fields and their field lines. We also confirmed Coulomb’s law with the
graphs that saw that at the middle point between two charges with same
magnitude and sign, the total electric field is 0. It was good to experiment
with electric fields and having a visual representation for understanding
better the concept. All lab parts were successfully completed by the group.
