Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital

Sensors

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D

Institute of Applied Sciences Ruhengeri

Department of Land Survey

April 25, 2024

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 Electrostatic field and its characteristics
Electric charge
The ancient Greeks discovered as early as 600 B.C. that after they
rubbed amber with wool, the amber could attract other objects. Today
we say that the amber has acquired a net electric charge, or has become
charged.

The word ”electric” is derived from the Greek word elektron, meaning
amber. When you scuff your shoes across a nylon carpet, you become
electrically charged, and you can charge a comb by passing it through
dry hair.

Plastic rods and fur (real or fake) are particularly good for demonstrat-
ing electrostatics, the interactions between electric charges that are at
rest (or nearly so).

After we charge both plastic rods in Fig. a by rubbing them with the
piece of fur, we find that the rods repel each other.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 2 / 37
 Electrostatic field and its characteristics
Electric charge

Figure: Experiments in electrostatics.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 3 / 37
 Electrostatic field and its characteristics
Electric charge
When we rub glass rods with silk, the glass rods also become charged
and repel each other (Fig.b). But a charged plastic rod attracts a
charged glass rod; furthermore, the plastic rod and the fur attract each
other, and the glass rod and the silk attract each other (Fig. c).
These experiments and many others like them have shown that there
are exactly two kinds of electric charge:
the kind on the plastic rod rubbed with fur and
the kind on the glass rod rubbed with silk.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) suggested calling these two kinds of

charge negative and positive, respectively, and these names are still
used.

The plastic rod and the silk have negative charge; the glass rod and
the fur have positive charge.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 4 / 37
 Electrostatic field and its characteristics

Electric charge
Two positive charges or two negative charges repel each other. A
positive charge and a negative charge attract each other.

Structure of Matter
The structure of atoms can be described in terms of three particles:
the negatively charged electron, the positively charged proton,
and the uncharged neutron.
The proton and neutron are combinations of other entities called
quarks, which have charges of ± 13 and ± 23 times the electron charge.
Isolated quarks have not been observed, and there are theoretical
reasons to believe that it is impossible in principle to observe a quark
in isolation.
The protons and neutrons in an atom make up a small, very dense
core called the nucleus, with dimensions of the order of 10−15 m.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 5 / 37
 Electrostatic field and its characteristics

Structure of Matter
Surrounding the nucleus are the electrons, extending out to distances
of the order of 10−10 m from the nucleus.
The negatively charged electrons are held within the atom by the attrac-
tive electric forces exerted on them by the positively charged nucleus.
The protons and neutrons are held within stable atomic nuclei by an
attractive interaction, called the strong nuclear force, that overcomes
the electric repulsion of the protons. The strong nuclear force has a
short range, and its effects do not extend far beyond the nucleus.

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 Electrostatic field and its characteristics
Structure of Matter

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 7 / 37
 Electrostatic field and its characteristics

Structure of Matter
Note that the masses of the proton and neutron are nearly equal and
are roughly 2000 times the mass of the electron. Over 99.9% of the
mass of any atom is concentrated in its nucleus.
The negative charge of the electron has exactly the same magnitude
as the positive charge of the proton. In a neutral atom the number
of electrons equals the number of protons in the nucleus, and the net
electric charge (the algebraic sum of all the charges) is exactly zero.
The number of protons or electrons in a neutral atom of an element is
called the atomic number of the element.
If one or more electrons are removed from an atom, what remains is
called a positive ion. A negative ion is an atom that has gained one or
more electrons.
This gain or loss of electrons is called ionization.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 8 / 37
 Electrostatic field and its characteristics

Structure of Matter
When the total number of protons in a macroscopic body equals the
total number of electrons, the total charge is zero and the body as a
whole is electrically neutral.
To give a body an excess negative charge, we may either add negative
charges to a neutral body or remove positive charges from that body.
Similarly, we can create an excess positive charge by either adding
positive charge or removing negative charge.
When we speak of the charge of a body, we always mean its net charge.
The net charge is always a very small fraction of the total positive
charge or negative charge in the body.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 9 / 37
 Electrostatic field and its characteristics
Structure of Matter

Figure: (a) A neutral atom has as many electrons as it does protons. (b) A
positive ion has a deficit of electrons. (c) A negative ion has an excess of
electrons.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 10 / 37
 Conservation and Quantization of Charge

Conservation of Charge
Another important aspect of Franklin’s model of electricity is the im-
plication that ” The algebraic sum of all the electric charges in any
closed system is constant”.
That is, when one object is rubbed against another, charge is not
created in the process. The electrified state is due to a transfer of
charge from one object to the other. One object gains some amount
of negative charge while the other gains an equal amount of positive
charge.
For example, when a glass rod is rubbed with silk, the silk obtains a
negative charge that is equal in magnitude to the positive charge on
the glass rod.
In any charging process, charge is not created or destroyed; it is merely
transferred from one body to another.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 11 / 37
 Conservation and Quantization of Charge

Quantization of Charge
In 1909, Robert Millikan (1868-1953) discovered that electric charge
always occurs as integral multiples of a fundamental amount of charge
e. We say that charge is quantized.
The magnitude of charge of the electron or proton is a natural unit of
charge.
A familiar example of quantization is money. When you pay cash for an
item in a boutique, you have to do it in one Rwandan franc increments.
Cash can’t be divided into amounts smaller than one Rwandan franc,
and electric charge can’t be divided into amounts smaller than the
charge of one electron or proton. (The quark charges, ± 13 and ± 23 of
the electron charge, are probably not observable as isolated charges.)
Thus the charge on any macroscopic body is always either zero or an
integer multiple (negative or positive) of the electron charge.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 12 / 37
 Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges
Conductors and Insulators
Some materials permit electric charge to move easily from one region
of the material to another, while others do not.
For example, the figure below shows a copper wire supported by a nylon
thread. Suppose you touch one end of the wire to a charged plastic
rod and attach the other end to a metal ball that is initially uncharged;
you then remove the charged rod and the wire.

Figure: (a) The copper wire conducts charge between the metal ball2024and the
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors
April 25, 13 / 37
 Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges
Conductors and Insulators
When you bring another charged body up close to the ball, the ball
is attracted or repelled, showing that the ball has become electrically
charged. Electric charge has been transferred through the copper wire
between the ball and the surface of the plastic rod.

Figure: Afterward, the metal ball is repelled by a negatively charged plastic rod.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 14 / 37
 Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges
Conductors and Insulators
The copper wire is called a conductor of electricity. If you repeat the
experiment using a rubber band or nylon thread in place of the wire,
you find that no charge is transferred to the ball. These materials are
called insulators.
Conductors permit the easy movement of charge through them, while
insulators do not.
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; electrical insulators are materials in which
all electrons are bound to atoms and cannot move freely through the
material.
Semiconductors are a third class of materials, and their electrical prop-
erties are somewhere between those of insulators and those of conduc-
tors.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 15 / 37
 Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges

Conductors and Insulators

Most metals are good conductors like Copper, silver, gold, iron and
aluminium. When such materials become charged in a small area the
charge readily distributes itself over the entire surface of the conductor.
Most non-metals are insulators like Glass, rubber and plastic. When
such materials are charged by rubbing, only the area that is rubbed
becomes charged and the charge is unable to move to other regions of
the material.
Examples of Semiconductors are Silicon and germanium which are
often used in computers and calculators.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 16 / 37
 Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges
Induced Charges
To understand how to charge a conductor by a process known as induc-
tion , consider an uncharged metal ball is supported on an insulating
stand (Fig.a).

Figure: Charging a metal ball by induction.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 17 / 37
 Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges

Induced Charges
When you bring a negatively charged rod near it, without actually
touching it (Fig.b), the free electrons in the metal ball are repelled by
the excess electrons on the rod, and they shift toward the right, away
from the rod. They cannot escape from the ball because the supporting
stand and the surrounding air are insulators.
So we get excess negative charge at the right surface of the ball and a
deficiency of negative charge at the left surface. These excess charges
are called induced charges.
If the same experiment is performed with a conducting wire connected
from the metal ball to the Earth (Fig. c), some of the electrons in
the conductor are so strongly repelled by the presence of the negative
charge in the rod that they move out of the metal ball through the
wire and into the Earth.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 18 / 37
 Conductors, Insulators and Induced Charges
Induced Charges
Now suppose you disconnect the wire (Fig. d) and then remove the
rod (Fig.e); a net positive charge is left on the ball. The charge on
the negatively charged rod has not changed during this process. The
earth acquires a negative charge that is equal in magnitude to the
induced positive charge remaining on the ball.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 19 / 37
 Electric charge

Exercises
1 When a glass rod is rubbed with silk, the rod becomes positively
charged, but when a rubber rod is rubbed with fur, it becomes neg-
atively charged. Suppose you have a charged object but don’t know
whether it carries a positive or a negative charge. Explain how you
could use a glass rod and piece of silk to determine the sign of the
charge on the unknown object.
2 It is found that a charged point particle is repelled from a glass rod
that has been charged by rubbing with silk. What is the sign of the
charge on the particle?
3 A glass object receives a positive charge by rubbing it with a silk cloth.
In the rubbing process, have protons been added to the object or have
electrons been removed from it?

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 20 / 37
 Coulomb’s Law

Charles Augustin de Coulomb (1736 -1806) studied the interaction

forces of charged particles in detail in 1784.
For point charges, charged bodies that are very small in comparison
with the distance r between them, Coulomb found that the electric
force is proportional to r12 .
That is, when the distance r doubles, the force decreases to one-quarter
of its initial value; when the distance is halved, the force increases to
four times its initial value.
The electric force between two point charges also depends on the quan-
tity of charge on each body, which we will denote by q or Q.
To explore this dependence, Coulomb divided a charge into two equal
parts by placing a small charged spherical conductor into contact with
an identical but uncharged sphere; by symmetry, the charge is shared
equally between the two spheres.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 21 / 37
 Coulomb’s Law

Thus he could obtain one-half, one-quarter, and so on, of any initial

charge.
He found that the forces that two point charges q1 and q2 exert on each
other are proportional to each charge and therefore are proportional to
the product q1 q2 of the two charges.
Thus Coulomb established what we now call Coulomb’s law:
The magnitude of the electric force between two point charges is
directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between them.
In mathematical terms, the magnitude F of the force that each of two
point charges q1 and q2 a distance r apart exerts on the other can be
expressed as
F = k qr1 q2 2

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 22 / 37
 Coulomb’s Law

Here, k is a proportionality constant whose numerical value de-

pends on the system of units used. The charges q1 and q2 can
be either positive or negative, while the force magnitude F is always
positive.
The directions of the forces the two charges exert on each other are
always along the line joining them.
When the charges q1 and q2 have the same sign, either both positive or
both negative, the forces are repulsive; when the charges have opposite
signs, the forces are attractive .

The two forces obey Newton’s third law; they are always equal in mag-
nitude and opposite in direction, even when the charges are not equal
in magnitude.

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 Coulomb’s Law
Interactions Between Point Charges

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 24 / 37
 Coulomb’s Law
Fundamental Electric Constants
The value of the proportionality constant k in Coulomb’s law depends
on the system of units used. In our study of electricity and magnetism
we will use SI units exclusively.

In SI units the constant k is

k= 1 ∼
= 9.0 × 109 N · m2 /C 2
4π0

where 0 (”epsilon-nought” or ”epsilon-zero”) is another constant

which is equal to 8.854 × 10−12 C 2 /N · m2

Superposition of Forces
Coulomb’s law describes only the interaction of two point charges.
Experiments show that when two charges exert forces simultaneously
on a third charge, the total force acting on that charge is the vector
sum of the forces that the two charges would exert individually.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 25 / 37
 Coulomb’s Law

Superposition of Forces
This important property, called the principle of superposition of forces,
holds for any number of charges. By using this principle, we can apply
Coulomb’s law to any collection of charges.

Strictly speaking, Coulomb’s law as we have stated it should be used

only for point charges in a vacuum.

If matter is present in the space between the charges, the net force
acting on each charge is altered because charges are induced in the
molecules of the intervening material.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 26 / 37
 Coulomb’s Law
Exercises
1 Two point charges of 1 C each are separated from each other by a
distance of 1 m in a vacuum.

(a) What is the force of their interaction?

(b) What will be the force if the medium between the charges is water? for
water, εr = 80 .

2 Consider a 2 µC charge located at the origin and a - 4 µC charge

located on the x-axis at x = 0.002 m.
(a) Determine the electric force exerted by the 2 µC charge on - 4 µC
charge.
(b) Determine the electric force exerted by the - 4 µC charge on the 2 µC.

3 Consider three charged particles of charge - 2 µC, 4 and 6 µC placed on

the y-axis at y = 0.004 m, y = 0 and y = 0.002 respectively. Calculate
the net electrical force exerted on the - 2 µC charge.
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 27 / 37
 Coulomb’s Law

Exercises
4. Two point charges, q1 = +25nC and q2 = −75nC , are separated by a
distance r = 3.0 cm. Find the magnitude and direction of the electric
force
(a) that q1 exerts on q2 and
(b) that q2 exerts on q1 .
5. Two point charges are located on the y-axis as follows: charge q1 =
−1.50 nC at y = −0.600 m, and charge q2 = +3.20 nC at the origin
(y = 0). What is the total force (magnitude and direction) exerted
by these two charges on a third charge q3 = +5.00 nC located at
y = −0.400 m?
6. Two point charges are located on the x-axis of a coordinate system:
q1 = 1.0nC is at x = + 2.0 cm, and q2 = −3.0nC is at x = + 4.0
cm. What is the total electric force exerted by q1 and q2 on a charge
q3 = 5.0nC at x = 0?
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 28 / 37
 Electric Field and Electric Forces

Electric Field
Based on the electric force between charged objects, the concept of an
electric field was developed by Michael Faraday in the 19th century, and
has proven to have valuable uses. a charged rod.
In this approach, an electric field is said to exist in the region of space
around any charged object.
To visualize this assume an electrical force of repulsion F ~ between two
positive charges q (called source charge) and q0 (called test charge).
The electric field is a vector field; it consists of a distribution of vectors,
one for each point in the region around a charged object, such as a
charged rod.
Video about Electric Field (Click Here)

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 Electric Field and Electric Forces
Electric Field

~ produced at point P by an isolated point charge

Figure: The electric field E
~ is produced by q but acts on the
q at S. Note that in both (b) and (c), E
charge q0 at point P.

In principle, we can define the electric field at some point near the
charged object,such as point P in Fig. above , as follows:
We first place a positive charge q0 , called a test charge, at the point.
We then measure the electrostatic force F ~ that acts on the test charge.
~ at point P due to the charged object
Finally,we define the electric field E
as
HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 30 / 37
 Electric Field and Electric Forces

Electric Field
~ = F~0
E q0
(definition of electric field as electric force per unit charge)

Thus, the magnitude of the electric field E~ at point P is E = F0 , and

q0
~ ~
the direction of E is that of the force F that acts on the positive test
charge.
Electric fleld lines extend away from positive charge (where they
originate) and toward negative charge (where they terminate)
~ , a vector quantity, is the force per unit charge exerted
Electric field E
on a test charge at any point. The electric field produced by a point
charge is directed radially away from or toward the charge.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 31 / 37
 Electric Field

Electric Field of a Point Charge

If the source distribution is a point charge q, it is easy to find the
electric field that it produces. We call the location of the charge the
source point, and we call the point P where we are determining the
field the field point.
If we place a small test charge q0 at the field point P, at a distance
r from the source point, the magnitude F0 of the force is given by
Coulomb’s law
1 |qq0 |
F0 = 4π0 r 2

The magnitude E of the electric field at P is

1 |q|
E= 4π0 r 2 (electric field of a point charge)

Using the unit vector r̂, we can write a vector equation that gives both
~:
the magnitude and direction of the electric field E

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 32 / 37
 Electric Field
Electric Field of a Point Charge
~ = 1 |q|
E 4π0 r 2 r̂
By definition, the electric field of a point charge always points away
from a positive charge (that is, in the same direction as r̂) but toward
a negative charge (that is, in the direction opposite r̂)

Figure: The field produced by a positive point charge points away from the
charge.
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 Electric Field

Electric Field of a Point Charge

Figure: The field produced by a negative point charge points toward the charge.

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 Electric Field

Electric Field of a Point Charge

If we use a rectangular (x, y, z) coordinate system, each component of
~ at any point is in general a function of the coordinates (x, y, z) of
E
the point.
We can represent the functions as Ex (x, y , z), Ey (x, y , z) and
Ez (x, y , z).
In some situations the magnitude and direction of the field have the
same values everywhere throughout a certain region; we then say that
the field is uniform in this region.
An important example of this is the electric field inside a conductor. If
there is an electric field within a conductor, the field exerts a force on
every charge in the conductor, giving the free charges a net motion.
By definition an electrostatic situation is one in which the charges have
no net motion.
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 Electric Field

Electric Field of a Point Charge

We conclude that in electrostatics, the electric field at every point
within the material of a conductor must be zero.
In summary, our description of electric interactions has two parts.
First, a given charge distribution acts as a source of electric field.
Second, the electric field exerts a force on any charge that is present in
the field.
Our analysis often has two corresponding steps:
first, calculating the field caused by a source charge distribution;
second, looking at the effect of the field in terms of force and motion.
The second step often involves Newton’s laws as well as the principles
of electric interactions.

HABAKUBAHO Gédéon, Ph.D (INES) Electromagnetism,Optics and Digital Sensors April 25, 2024 36 / 37
 References

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sky’s University Physics with Modern Physics. 14th Edition. Pearson
Addison-Wesley.
2 Serway R.A. (2009). Physics for Scientists and Engineers. 8th Edition.
Brooks Cole.
3 Nicholas J. G. (2010). COLLEGE PHYSICS: Reasoning and Relation-
ships. First Edition. Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning, Boston.
4 Giancoli D.C. (2005). PHYSICS: Principles with Applications. Sixth
Edition. Prentice Hall, New Jersey .
5 Holliday D., Resnick R., Walker J.(2010). Fundementals of Physics.
8th Edition. Wiley.

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