PHY114 S11 Lecture 2: The Electric Field

S. G. Rajeev
January 18, 2011

1 Vectors
Many physical quantities are represented as numbers: mass, temperature, charge.
They can be positive or negative. Such quantities are calles scalars.
But there are other quantities, such as velocity that need both a number (its
magnitude) and a direction to describe them fully. It is not enough to know
how fast an airplane is moving, we have to also which direction it is moving
to completely descrive its velocity. Such quantities are called vectors. Other
examples of vectors are force, momentum and position.
It is useful to visualize a vector as a an arrow, pointing along some direction,
with a length that is equal to its magnitude.

1.1 Adding Vectors

Adding scalars is easy: just add them as numbers. If we add a charge of 2𝜇𝐶,
to one of −3.1𝜇𝐶 we get a charge of −1.1𝜇𝐶.
Vectors can also be added but it is more tricky: the sum of two vectors
points in some direction that is in between their two directions. To add two
vectors we place them end to end. That is, we draw a line in the direction of
the first vector A whose length is equal to its magnitude. From its endpoint,
draw another line in the direction of the second vector again, B with a length
equal to its magnitude. The sum of the two vectors C = A + B is the line from
the starting point of A to the endpoint of C.

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 C

1.2 Mutlipying Vector by a Scalar

Given a vector A, its product with any positive number 𝑥 is another vector
pointing in the same direction, but who magnitude is 𝑥 times the magnitude of
A. If 𝑥 is negative the story is the same, except that 𝑥A points in the opposite
direction to A.

1.3 Unit Vectors

A
The magnitude of a vector (its length) is denoted by ∣A∣. Thus ∣A∣ is a vector
of unit length pointing in the same direction as A. Sometimes it is denoted as
Â. It contains only the information about the direction of A, not its length.

1.4 The Position Vector

The position of any point is itself a vector: it is the vector connecting the origin
of your co-ordinate system to that point. You can think of the position vector
r as a way of finding where the point is: if you move a certain distance ∣r∣ from
the origin along a certain direction r̂ , you will get to the point.
The relative position of two points is the vector that starts at one and ends
at the other. In terms of the position vectors r1 and r2 of the two points, the
relative position of 2 with respect to one is

r12 = r2 − r1 .

2 Vector Form of Coulomb’s Law

𝑄𝑄1
We saw that the force on a charge 𝑄due to another 𝑄1 is equal to 𝑘 ∣r−r 1∣
2

where ∣r − r1 ∣ is the distance between them. What is the direction of this force?
It is pointed along the line connecting the two charges. The vector r − r1 is

2
the relative position of 2 with respect to 1. Its magnitude is the distance 𝑟12
between them.Thus we can restate Coulomb’s law more precisely as
𝑄𝑄1
F=𝑘 − r1 .
rˆ
∣r − r1 ∣2

If 𝑄1 and 𝑄2 have the same sign, the force is repulsive and the vector F12
points away from 2 towards 1. If they have opposite charges, the force points
towards 2. All this information is contained in the vector form of the law. Since
r − r1
− r1 =
rˆ
∣r − r1 ∣

we can also write this as

𝑄𝑄1
F=𝑘 (r − r1 )
∣r − r1 ∣3

which is often more convenient.

3 Many Charges
Suppose a charge 𝑞 is situated at some point r near two other charges 𝑄1 and
𝑄2 which are at r1 and r2 respectively. Each will exert a force on 𝑞. What is the
total force? It is given by the sum of the two.
We must add them as vectors:
𝑞𝑄1 𝑞𝑄2
𝑘 3
(r − r1 ) + 𝑘 (r − r2 )
∣r − r1 ∣ ∣r − r2 ∣3

The idea is the same if we have many charges: we just add one term for each
charge:
𝑞𝑄1 𝑞𝑄2 𝑞𝑄3 𝑞𝑄4
𝑘 (r − r1 )+𝑘 (r − r2 )+𝑘 (r − r3 )+𝑘 (r − r4 )+⋅ ⋅ ⋅
∣r − r1 ∣3 ∣r − r2 ∣3 ∣r − r3 ∣3 ∣r − r4 ∣3

Notice that the force on a charge is proportional to its own electric charge
time a quantity that is determined by all the remaining charges and their posi-
tions :
It is useful to give the quantity inside the brackets a name: it is called the
electric field.
[ ]
𝑄1 𝑄2 𝑄3 𝑄4
𝑞 𝑘 (r − r 1 ) + 𝑘 (r − r2 ) + 𝑘 (r − r 3 ) + 𝑘 (r − r4 ) + ⋅ ⋅ ⋅
∣r − r1 ∣3 ∣r − r2 ∣3 ∣r − r3 ∣3 ∣r − r4 ∣3

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4 The Electric Field
The force on a charge at any point is its electric charge times the electric field
at that point. Thus, the electric field at some point r due to a single charge 𝑄
sitting at the origin is 𝑘𝑄
𝑟 2 r̂ or, equivalently,

𝑄
𝑘 r.
𝑟3
If 𝑄1 is sitting at some point r1 , the electric field at the point r will be
𝑄1
𝑘 (r − r1 )
∣r − r1 ∣3

This is another way of stating Coulomb’s law. The electric field at the point
r is the sum of the electric fields due to all the charges around it:
𝑄1 𝑄2 𝑄3 𝑄4
E(r) = 𝑘 3
(r − r1 )+𝑘 3
(r − r2 )+𝑘 3
(r − r3 )+𝑘 (r − r4 )+⋅ ⋅ ⋅
∣r − r1 ∣ ∣r − r2 ∣ ∣r − r3 ∣ ∣r − r4 ∣3

Thus we can imagine at every point in space a little arrow pointing in the
direction of E(r): if you were to put a charge 𝑞 at that point, the force acting
on it would be 𝑞E(r).
Gauss found a way to restate Coulomb’s law in a form that is more useful
to calculate the electric field at any point.
This Gauss’ Law is the topic of the next Lecture.