Chapter 3

Electrostatics

Objective:
After completion this chapter, the student will
able to:

Apply Maxwells equation

Explain the charge and current distribution
Describe Coulombs and Gauss Law
Explain the electrical properties of materials
Describe the Electric Boundary Condition
Calculate capacitance and Electrostatic Potential
energy

Maxwells Equations
Fundamental relations:
.D = v
= the vector differenti al operator
.B = 0

D = the electric flux density

B
E =
t
D
H = J +
t

B = the magnetic field intensity

E = the electric field intensity
H= the magnetic field intensity
v= the volume charge density
J = the current density

In the static case, none of the quantities

appearing in Maxwells equations are a
function of time
This happens when all charges are
permanently fixed in space, or, if they move,
they do at a steady rate so that
v and J are constant in time
Under this circumstances, the time derivative
for B and D is zero.

Electrostatics:

Magnetostatics

Charge and Current Distributions

Charge Densities

Charge exist only where electrons and

nuclei are nowhere else
We define volume charge densities v

as

The variation of v with spatial location is called

spatial distribution or simply distribution.
The total charge contained in a given volume v is
given by

In conductors, electric charge may be distributed

across the surface of material, in which case the
relevant quantity of interest is the surface charge
density S defined as

Similarly, if charge is
distributed along
line, which need not
be straight, we
characterize the
distribution in terms
of the line charge
density l , defined
as

Line Charge Distribution: Example

Calculate the total charge Q contained in a cylindrical
tube of charge oriented along the z-axis as shown in
l = 2 z
Figure 3.1 (a). The line charge is
where z is the distance in meters from the bottom
end of the tube. The tube length is 10 cm.
Solution:
Q=

0.1

0.1

2 0
2

dz
=
2
zdz
=
z
|
=
10
C
0.1
l

Surface Charge Distribution-Example

The circular disk of electron
shown in Figure 3.1 b is
characterized by an
azimuthally symmetrical
surface charge density that
increases linearly with r from
zero at the center 9C/m2 at
r=3cm. Find the total charge
present on the disk surface

Solution

Current Density
The charges are moving with a mean velocity u along
the axis tube.
Over the period t , the charges move a distance
l = ut . The amount of charge that crosses the
tubes cross sectional surface in time t is
therefore

The figure 3.2 b shows

the charges are flowing
through a surface s
whose surface normal n

is not necessarily
parallel to u. In this
case, the amount of
charges q flowing
through s
And the corresponding
current is:

Where current density in ampere per

square meter.

For arbitrary surface S, the total current

flowing through it is then given by:

When the current is generated by the actual

movement of electrically charged matter, it is called a
convection current, J is called the convection current
density
A wind-driven charged cloud, for example, gives rise
to a convection current.
In some cases, the charged matter constituting the
convection current consists solely of charged
particles, such as the electrons of an electron beam
in cathode ray tube (the picture tube of televisions
and computer monitors)
This is distinct from a conduction current, where
atoms of the conducting medium do not move.
Conduction current obeys Ohms Law where
convection current does not.

Coulombs Law
Coulombs Law states that:

An isolated charge q induces an electric field E at

every point in space and any specific point P, E is
given by: (figure 3.13)

In in the presence of an electric field E at a given

point in space, which may be due to a single
charge or a distribution of many charges, the
force acting on a test charge q, when the charge
is placed at that point, given by:

For a material with electrical permittivity,

the
electrical field quantities D and E are related by:

r is relative permittivity (or dielectric constant)

of the material

If
is independent of the magnitude of E, then the
material is said to be linear because D and E are
related linearly, and if it is independent of the
direction of E, the material is said to be isotropic

Electric field due to Multiple Point

Charges
For two pints charges, q1 and q2, located at position
vectors R1 and R2 from the origin of a given
coordinate system as shown in Figure 3.4, the
electric field for E1 and E2 are:

The electric field obeys the principle of linear

superposition.
The total electric fields E at any point in space is
equal to the vector sum of the electric fields induced
by all the individual charges.
In present case,

The charges for N points are;

Example 3.3 electric field due to two

point charges
Two point charges with q1 = 2 10-5C and q 2 =-4 10-5C are located in
free space at (1,3,-1) and (-3,1,-2), respectively, in a Cartesian coordinate
system. Find (a) the electric field E at (-3,1,-2)
(b) the force on a 8 10-5C charge located at that point.
All distances are in meters.

Electric Field due to a Charge

distribution
The volume v in Figure 3.5 contains a
distribution of electric charge characterized
by a volume charge density v
The differential electric field at a point P due
to a differential amount of charge dq = v dv'
contained in a differential volume dv is
dE = R '

v dv'
dq

=R
2
4 R '
4 R '2

If the charge distributed across a

surface S with surface charge density S
the dq = s ds ' and if it is distributed
along a line l ' with a line charge
density, l then dq = l dl '

Example: Electric Field of a Ring of

Charge
A ring charge of radius b is
characterized by a uniform
line charge density of
positive polarity l . With
the ring in free space and
positioned in the x-y plane in
figure 3.6, determine the
electric field intensity E at a
point (0,0,h) along the axis
of the ring at a distance h
from its center.

Solution

The electric field at P (0,0, h) due to charge

of segment 1 is

Example 3-5
Find the electric field at point P(0,0,h) in free
space at a height h on the z-axis due to a circular
disk of charge in the x-y plane with uniform
charge density s as shown in figure 3-7 and then
evaluate E for the infinite -sheet case by letting
a