Lecture 4
Lecture 4
The rate of flow through an area or volume. It can also be viewed as the product of
an area and the vector field across the area
Flux = E area E=
A
= . ⃗
Total flux
=∑ . ⃗
=∮ . ⃗
= . ⃗
= EAcosθ
Electric Flux
Electric flux through a cylinder with its axis parallel to the electric field direction
=∮ . ⃗
B
A C
=∫ . ⃗+∫ . ⃗+ ∫ . ⃗
A B C
=∫ q+∫ q+ ∫ q
A B C
=∫ 180 + ∫ 90 + ∫ 0
A B C
= −E ∫ + ∫
A C S=
= −ES + ES
TF
= S
Gauss’ law
Note that qenc is simply the sum of the point charges. If the charge distribution were
continuous, we would need to integrate appropriately to compute the total charge
within the Gaussian surface.
Gaussian surface
Applications of Gauss' Law
Electric Field due to Infinite line charge
Consider an infinitely long line of charge with the charge per unit length being λ. We can take advantage of the
cylindrical symmetry of this situation. By symmetry, The electric fields all point radially away from the line of
charge, there is no component parallel to the line of charge.
We can use a cylinder (with an arbitrary radius (r) and length (l)) centred on the line of charge as our Gaussian
surface.
P Gaussian surface
B C
=∮ . ⃗ A r
=∫ . ⃗+∫ . ⃗+ ∫ . ⃗
A B C
=∫ q+∫ q+ ∫ q
A B C S
S B
r C
=∫ 90 + ∫ 0+ ∫ 90
A B C
A
= E∫ = E (2 )
B
Electric Field due to Infinite line charge
= E (2 )
l
E=
S
S B
r C
A
Importance or significance of Gauss’ law
By substituting value of E
This represents the Coulomb’s Law and it is derived from gauss’ law.
Electric Field due to infinite plane sheet of charge
Charge density =
=∮ . ⃗
C
=∫ . ⃗+∫ . ⃗+ ∫ . ⃗
B A B C
A
=∫ q+∫ q+ ∫ q
A B C
=∫ 0+∫ 90 + ∫ 0
A B C
Electric Field due to infinite plane sheet of charge
= E∫ + ∫
A C
= ES + ES = 2ES C
B
A
Using Gauss theorem,
=
s
2ES= Total charge =s
s
E=
=0
How?