1 - Electric Fields
1 - Electric Fields
and Skills
Electric Fields
IB Physics - SL
• Opposite electric charges attract each other • Insulator: A material that does not respond to an electric field and
completely resists the flow of electric charge
• Similar electric charges repel each other • On insulators, charge remains on the spot where it is introduced
• Conductor: A material that responds to an electric field and does not resist
• Charged objects attract some neutral objects the flow of electric charge
• On spherical conductors, charge spreads out evenly
• On non-spherical conductors, charges repel each other towards pointed surfaces
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Charging by Contact Induced Charge Separation
• Unit for electric charge: Coulomb (C) • Proton and the electron have charges equal in
magnitude but opposite in sign
• Elementary charge charge on an electron
• 𝑒 = 1.602 × 10−19𝐶 • Every subatomic particle that has been observed to
date has a charge that is a whole number multiple of
• Object with an excess (or deficit) of N electrons has a the fundamental charge
charge q that is given by: 𝑞 = 𝑁𝑒
• Charge is quantized Appears in specific amounts,
whether positive or negative
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Coulomb’s Law Assumptions of Coulomb’s Law
𝑘𝑞1 𝑞2 2
𝐹𝐸 = 𝑟2
𝑘 = 9.0 × 109 𝑁∙𝑚
𝐶2
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Sample Problem 2 - Solution Sample Problem 2 - Solution
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Sample Problem 3 - Solution Sample Problem 3 - Solution
𝑘𝑞1 𝐹
𝜀= =
𝑟2 𝑞
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Drawing Electric Field Diagrams
Electrostatic Equilibrium
for Charged Plates
• Electric field outside plates is zero • Any conductor in electrostatic equilibrium will
have no electric field inside of it
• Except for slight bulging near end of plates
• How this works:
• Electric field is constant everywhere in the space between the parallel • Before the external field is applied, free
plates electrons are distributed throughout the
• Field lines are: straight, equally spaced, perpendicular to plates conductor
• When the external field is applied, the
• Magnitude of electric field at any point between plates depends only on electrons redistribute until the magnitude of
magnitude of charge on each plate the internal field equals the magnitude of the
external field
• Except near edges
• There is a net field of zero inside the
• 𝜀 𝛼 𝑞, where q is the charge per unit area on each plate conductor
• Induced surface charges create an opposing
electric field that cancels the field of the
external charge throughout the interior of the
metal
• The electric field inside the conductive object
is zero
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Sample Problem 5 - Solution Sample Problem 5 - Solution
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Electric Potential Electric Potential and Sign
• Electric potential: The value, in volts, of potential • Positive charge Electric potential is large near the charge
energy per unit positive charge and decreases, approaching zero, as r increases
• Negative charge Electric potential is a large negative value
𝐽 near the charge and increases, approaching zero, as r increases
1𝑉 = 1
𝐶
𝑘𝑞1
𝑉=
𝑟
• Electric Potential Difference: The amount of work required per • Scientists often consider electrons moving about in
unit charge to move a positive charge from one point to electric fields convenient to measure their change
another in the presence of an electric field of energy in terms of electron volts rather than joules
𝑊 = ∆𝐸𝐸 = 𝑞∆𝑉 = 𝑞𝑉𝐵 − 𝑞𝑉𝐴 = 𝑞(𝑉𝐵 − 𝑉𝐴 ) • An electron volt is the energy gained by an electron
accelerated through a potential difference of 1 volt
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Electric Potential in a Uniform
Field Strength - Units
Field
• A uniform electric field can be created between two charged plates
𝑉 𝐽
• For electric field strength, = : • Consider the bottom plate to be at 0V and the top plate V
𝑚 𝐶 • To move a charge, q, from the bottom to the top the energy gained (work done), in joules, is:
𝐸 = 𝑞∆𝑉
𝐽 𝑘𝑔 ∙ 𝑚2 • If the field strength is 𝜀, then the force required is:
𝑉 𝐽 2 𝑘𝑔 ∙ 𝑚2 𝑘𝑔 ∙ 𝑚 𝑁 𝐹 = 𝑞𝜀
=𝐶 = = 𝑠 = 2 = 2 = • Work done is:
𝑚 𝑚 𝐶∙𝑚 𝐶∙𝑚 𝑠 ∙𝑚∙𝐶 𝑠 ∙𝐶 𝐶 𝐹 cos 𝜃 ∆𝑑 = 𝑞𝑒∆𝑑 (𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝜃 = 0, 𝑠𝑜 cos 𝜃 = 1)
• Energy is conserved, so work done is equal to gain in potential energy:
∆𝑉
𝑞∆𝑉 = 𝑞𝜀∆𝑑 → 𝜀 =
∆𝑑
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Sample Problem 9 Sample Problem 9 - Solution
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Sample Problem 11 Sample Problem 11 - Solution
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Sample Problem 13 - Solution Sample Problem 13 - Solution
Practice
• Exercises 1 - 7
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