PHYS 122:

Electricity and Magnetism,

Vibrations and waves
Lecture 1
Electric Charge and Electric Field
Course structure
• Part 1: Electricity and Magnetism
• Electric Charge and Electric Field
• Electric Potential
• Capacitance and Dielectrics
• Current, Resistance, and EMF
• Direct-Current Circuits
• Magnetic Field and Magnetic Forces
• Sources of Magnetic Field
• Part 2: Vibration and Waves
• Vibrations
• Waves
• Part 3: Geometric Optics
• Mirror
• Lenses
Course work
1. Tests: There will be 2 tests, each weighted at 12.5%. The dates for
the tests will be communicated during the course of the semester and
well in advance.

2. Assignment: Groupwork weighted at 5% based around a topic from

“Electricity and Magnetism, Vibrations and waves.”

3. Practicals: There shall be 2 assessed practicals (in form of lab

reports), and each will contribute 5% to the final grade.
ELECTRIC CHARGE
• Two kinds of electric charge
• Negative charge: An object has an excess of electrons.
• Positive Charge: An object has excess protons.

• Charges of the same sign repel one another and charges with
opposite signs attract one another .

• In an isolated system, an electric charge is always conserved, i.e. a charge is

not created between objects rubbing against each other, but rather transferred
from one object to the other.

• Charge is quantized: electric charge is always a multiple integral of a

fundamental amount of charge.
CONDUCTORS, INSULATORS AND INDUCED CHARGES
• Electrical conductors are materials in which some of the electrons are free electrons
that are not bound to atoms and can move relatively freely through the material. E.g.
copper, aluminium, and silver.

• Electrical insulators are materials in which all electrons are bound to atoms and cannot
move freely through the material. E.g. Glass, rubber, etc.

• Charges can be induced either by conduction or induction

• Charging an object by induction requires no contact with the object inducing the
charge.

• During charging by conduction, both objects acquire the same type of charge.
Charging by conduction requires a contact between the charged object and the neutral
object (the object being charged).
• 
COULOMB'S LAW
• The fundamental law of electric force between two stationary charged particles.
• An Electric force has the following properties:
1. It is directed along a line joining the two particles and is inversely proportional to the square of the
separation distance r, between them.
2. It is proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the charges, and , of the two particles.
3. It is attractive if the charges are of opposite sign and repulsive if the charges have the same sign.
• The magnitude of the electric force F between charges and separated by a distance is
given by

(1)
where is a constant called the Coulomb constant.

• Equation (1) known as Coulomb’s law, applies exactly only to point charges and to
spherical distributions of charges, in which case is the distance between the two centres
of charge.
•  The value of coulomb’s constant depends on the units of choice. The SI units of
a charge is coulomb (C), therefore, coulomb’s constant in SI units is:

(2)

• This constant is also written in the form

(3)
where the constant (lowercase Greek epsilon) is known as the permittivity of free space and
has the value
(4)
• The
  charges and masses of the electron, proton, and neutron are given in Table 1

• Take note that when dealing with Coulomb’s law, the force is a vector quantity and
should be treated as such.

• The law expressed in vector form for the electric force exerted by a charge on a
second charge , written , is

(5)
where is a unit vector directed from toward
• Figure
  1: Two point charges separated by a distance r exert a force on each other that is
given by Coulomb’s law. The force exerted by on is equal in magnitude and opposite
in direction to the force exerted by on . (a) When the charges are of the same sign, the
force is repulsive. (b) When the charges are of opposite signs, the force is attractive.

Figure 1:
•  When more than two charges are present, the force between any pair of them is
given by Equation 5.
• The resultant force on any one of them equals the vector sum of the forces
exerted by the various individual charges. For example, if four charges are
present, then the resultant force exerted by particles 2, 3, and 4 on particle 1 is:
(6)
• Example 1: Finding the resultant force (from Serway College Physics 7e
Example 15.3).
• Consider three point charges at the corners of a triangle, as shown in Figure 2, where , ,
and .
(a) Find the components of the force exerted by on .
(b) Find the components of the force exerted by on .
(c) Find the resultant force on , in terms of components and also in terms of magnitude and direction.
•ELECTRIC
  FIELDS AND FORCES
• An electric field exists in the region of space around a charged object - the source
charge.

• The electric field vector at a point in space is defined as the electric force on a
positive test charge placed at that point divided by the test charge:
(7)
SI Unit: newton per coulomb (N/C)

• For a known electric field of a given arrangement of charges at a point, the force of any
particle with charge placed at that point can be calculated by rearranging equation 7.

(8)
The force on a charged particle placed in an electric field.
•  If is positive, the force is in the same direction as the field. If is negative, the
force and the field are in opposite directions.
• An electric field exists at a point if a test charge at that point
experiences an electric force.
• Consider a point charge located a distance from a test charge According to
Coulomb’s law, the magnitude of the electric force of the charge on the test
charge is:
(9)
• Since the magnitude of the electric field at the position of the test charge is
defined as , then the magnitude of the electric field due to the charge at the
position of can be written as:
(10)
•  To calculate the electric field at a point due to a group of point charges, we first
calculate the electric field vectors at individually using Equation 10 and then
add them as vectors.

• Meaning to say, at any point , the total electric field due to a group of
source charges equals the vector sum of the electric fields of all the charges.

• Thus, the electric field at point P due to a group of source charges can be
expressed as the vector sum
(11)
where is the distance from the source charge to the point P
• Example
  2: (Serway, Physics for scientists and engineers 6e, example 23.5)
• A charge is located at the origin, and a second charge is located on the axis, 0.30 m
from the origin (Fig. 3). Find the electric field at the point P, which has coordinates (0,
0.40) m.

• Figure 3
••  Problem-Solving Strategy
• Calculating Electric Forces and Fields
• The following procedure is used to calculate electric forces (the same procedure can be used to
calculate an electric field, a simple matter of replacing the charge of interest, , with a convenient test
charge and dividing by the test charge at the end):
1. Draw a diagram of the charges in the problem.
2. Identify the charge of interest, , and circle it.
3. Convert all units to SI, with charges in coulombs and distances in meters, so as to be consistent with
the SI value of the Coulomb constant .
4. Apply Coulomb’s law. For each charge , find the electric force on the charge of interest, The
magnitude of the force can be found using Coulomb’s law. The vector direction of the electric force
is along the line of the two charges, directed away from if the charges have the same sign, toward if
the charges have the opposite sign. Find the angle this vector makes with the positive x -axis. The x-
component of the electric force exerted by on will be cos , and the y-component will be sin .
5. Sum all the x-components, getting the x-component of the resultant electric force.
6. Sum all the y-components, getting the y-component of the resultant electric force.
7. Use the Pythagorean theorem and trigonometry to find the magnitude and direction of the
resultant force if desired.
•ELECTRIC
  FIELD LINES
• Electric field lines are lines drawn pointing in the direction of the electric field
vector at any point to visualise electric field patterns.
• The relationship between electric field lines and the electric field in any region
of space is:
1. The electric field vector is tangent to the electric field lines at each point.
2. The number of lines per unit area through a surface perpendicular to the lines is
proportional to the strength of the electric field in a given region.

NOTE: is large when the field lines are close together and small when the
lines are far apart
• The following are the rules for drawing electric field lines:
1. The lines must begin on a positive charge and terminate on a negative charge. In the case
of an excess of one type of charge, some lines will begin or end infinitely far away.
2. The number of lines drawn leaving a positive charge or approaching a negative charge is
proportional to the magnitude of the charge.
3. No two field lines can cross.

Figure 4
(a) For a positive point charge, the lines are directed radially outward. (b) For a negative point
charge, the lines are directed radially inward.
 (a) (b)
Figure 5
• (a) The electric field lines for two equal and opposite point charges (an electric
dipole). (b) The electric field lines for two positive point charges.

• Question:
• Rank the magnitudes of the electric field at points A, B, and C in Figure 5 (b)
• 
ELECTRIC DIPOLES
• The electric dipole consists of two charges of equal magnitude and opposite
sign separated by a distance as shown in figure 6.

Figure 6
• The electric dipole moment of this configuration is defined as the vector
directed from toward along the line joining the charges and having
magnitude :
• Page 815 Serway Phy 4 Sci and Eng 6e