Physics

 Chapter-1 Electric Charges and Fields

# Theory :

1. Explain quantisation of charge.

2. Write down the Coulomb’s law and explain its scalar

form.

3. Write down the Coulomb’s law and get the vector form
of it.

4. Explain electric field produced by the point eletric

charge.

5. Write the characteristics of electric field lines.

6. Explain electric flux.

7. Explain in short about electric dipole.

8. Derive the formula of electric field for a point on axis of

electric dipole.

9. Derive the formula of electric field for a point on

equatorial plane at distance r from the centre of electric
dipole.

10. Derive the formula of torque for electric dipole placed

in uniform electric field.

11. Explain linear density, surface density and volume

density for continuous charge distribution.

12. Write Gauss’s law and explain.

13. Get the electric field due to an infinitely long straight

uniformly charged wire.
14. Get the electric field due to a uniformly charged
infinite plane sheet.
15. Get the electric field due to a uniformly charged thin
spherical shell.

# Examples :
Example 1.1
If 109 electrons move out of a body to another body
every second, how much time is required to get a total
charge of 1 C on the other body?

Example 1.2
How much positive and negative charge is there in a
cup of water?

Example 1.3
Coulomb’s law for electrostatic force between two point
charges and Newton’s law for gravitational force between
two stationary point masses, both have inverse-square
dependence on the distance between the charges and
masses respectively. (a) Compare the strength of these
forces by determining the ratio of their magnitudes (i) for
an electron and a proton and (ii) for two protons. (b)
Estimate the accelerations of electron and proton due to
the electrical force of their mutual attraction when they
are 1 Å (= 10-10 m) apart? (mp = 1.67 ×
10-27 kg, me = 9.11 × 10-31 kg).

Example 1.4
and D respectively, as shown in Fig. 1.4
(a) . C and D are then removed and B is brought closer
to A to a distance of 5.0 cm between their centres, as
shown in Fig. 1.4
A charged metallic sphere A is suspended by a nylon
thread. Another charged metallic sphere B held by an
insulating handle is brought close to A such that the
distance between their centre is 10 cm, as shown in Fig.
1.4(a). The resulting repulsion of A is noted (for example,
by shining a beam of light and measuring the deflection of
its shadow on a screen). Spheres A and B are touched by
uncharged spheres C and D respectively, as shown in Fig.
1.4(b). C and D are then removed and B is brought closer
to A to a distance of 5.0 cm between their centres, as
shown in Fig. 1.4(c). What is the expected repulsion of A
on the basis of Coulomb’s law?
Spheres A and C and spheres B and D have identical sizes.
Ignore the sizes of A and B in comparison to the
separation between their centres.

Example 1.5
Consider three charges q1 , q2 , q3 each equal to q at the
vertices of an equilateral triangle of side l. What is the
force on a charge Q (with the same sign as q) placed at
the centroid of the triangle, as shown in Fig. 1.6?
Example 1.6
Consider the charges q, q, and –q placed at the vertices of
an equilateral triangle, as shown in Fig. 1.7. What is the
force on
each charge?

Example 1.7
An electron falls through a distance of 1.5 cm in a uniform
electric field of magnitude 2.0 × 104 N C-1 [Fig. 1.10(a)].
The
direction of the field is reversed keeping its magnitude
unchanged and a proton falls through the same distance
[Fig.1.10(b)]. Compute the time of fall in each case.
Contrast the situation with that of ‘free fall under gravity’.
Example 1.8
Two point charges q1 and q2 , of magnitude +10-8 C and –
10-8 C, respectively, are placed 0.1 m apart. Calculate the
electric fields at points A, B and C shown in Fig. 1.11

Example 1.9
Two charges ±10 mC are placed 5.0 mm apart. Determine
the electric field at (a) a point P on the axis of the dipole
15 cm away from its centre O on the side of the positive
charge, as shown in Fig. 1.18(a), and (b) a point Q, 15 cm
away from O on a line passing through O and normal to
the axis of the dipole, as shown in Fig. 1.18(b).
Example 1.10
The electric field components in Fig. 1.24 are Ex = ax 1/2 ,
Ey = Ez = 0, in which a = 800 N/C m1/2. Calculate (a) the
flux through the cube, and (b) the charge within the cube.
Assume
that a = 0.1 m.

Example 1.11
An electric field is uniform, and in the positive x direction
for positive x, and uniform with the same magnitude but in
the negative x direction for negative x. It is given that E =
200 ˆi N/C for x > 0 and E = –200 ˆi N/C for x < 0. A right
circular cylinder of length 20 cm and radius 5 cm has its
centre at the origin and its axis along the x-axis so that
one face is at x = +10 cm and the other is at x = –10 cm
(Fig. 1.25). (a) What is the net outward flux through each
flat face? (b) What is the flux through the side of the
cylinder? (c) What is the net outward flux through the
cylinder? (d) What is the net charge inside the cylinder?

Example 1.12
An early model for an atom considered it to have a
positively charged point nucleus of charge Ze, surrounded
by a uniform density of negative charge up to a radius R.
The atom as a
whole is neutral. For this model, what is the electric field
at a distance r from the nucleus?

# EXERCISES :
1.1
What is the force between two small charged spheres
having
charges of 2 × 10-7C and 3 × 10-7C placed 30 cm apart in
air?

1.2
The electrostatic force on a small sphere of charge 0.4 mC
due to another small sphere of charge –0.8 mC in air is 0.2
N. (a) What is the distance between the two spheres? (b)
What is the force on the second sphere due to the first?

1.6
Four point charges qA = 2 mC, qB = –5 mC, qC = 2 mC,
and qD = –5 mC are located at the corners of a square
ABCD of side 10 cm. What is the force on a charge of 1 mC
placed at the centre of the square?

1.7
(a) An electrostatic field line is a continuous curve. That is,
a field line cannot have sudden breaks. Why not?
(b) Explain why two field lines never cross each other at
any point?

1.8
Two point charges qA = 3 mC and qB = –3 mC are located
20 cm apart in vacuum.
(a) What is the electric field at the midpoint O of the line
AB joining the two charges?
(b) If a negative test charge of magnitude 1.5 × 10–9 C is
placed at this point, what is the force experienced by the
test charge?

1.9
A system has two charges qA = 2.5 × 10-7 C and qB = –2.5
× 10-7 C located at points A: (0, 0, –15 cm) and B: (0,0,
+15 cm), respectively. What are the total charge and
electric dipole moment of the system?

1.10
An electric dipole with dipole moment 4 × 10 -9 C m is
aligned at 30° with the direction of a uniform electric field
of magnitude 5 × 104 NC-1. Calculate the magnitude of the
torque acting on the dipole.

1.11
A polythene piece rubbed with wool is found to have a
negative
charge of 3 × 10-7C.
(a) Estimate the number of electrons transferred (from
which to which?)
(b) Is there a transfer of mass from wool to polythene?

1.12
(a) Two insulated charged copper spheres A and B have
their centres separated by a distance of 50 cm. What is
the mutual force of electrostatic repulsion if the charge on
each is 6.5 × 10-7C? The
radii of A and B are negligible compared to the distance of
separation.
(b) What is the force of repulsion if each sphere is charged
double
the above amount, and the distance between them is
halved?

1.14
Consider a uniform electric field E = 3 × 10 3 î N/C. (a)
What is the flux of this field through a square of 10 cm on
a side whose plane is parallel to the yz plane? (b) What is
the flux through the same square if the normal to its plane
makes a 60° angle with the x-axis?

1.15
What is the net flux of the uniform electric field of Exercise
1.14 through a cube of side 20 cm oriented so that its
faces are parallel to the coordinate planes?

1.16
Careful measurement of the electric field at the surface of
a black box indicates that the net outward flux through
the surface of the box is 8.0 × 103 Nm2 /C.
(a) What is the net charge inside the box?
(b) If the net outward flux through the surface of the box
were zero, could you conclude that there were no charges
inside the box? Why or Why not?

1.17
A point charge +10 mC is a distance 5 cm directly above
the centre of a square of side 10 cm, as shown in Fig.
1.31. What is the magnitude of the electric flux through
the square? (Hint: Think of the square as one face of a
cube with edge 10 cm.)

1.18
A point charge of 2.0 mC is at the centre of a cubic
Gaussian
surface 9.0 cm on edge. What is the net electric flux
through the surface?

1.19
A point charge causes an electric flux of –1.0 × 10 3 Nm2 /C
to pass through a spherical Gaussian surface of 10.0 cm
radius centred on the charge.
(a) If the radius of the Gaussian surface were doubled,
how much flux would pass through the surface?
(b) What is the value of the point charge?

1.20
A conducting sphere of radius 10 cm has an unknown
charge. If
the electric field 20 cm from the centre of the sphere is
1.5 × 103 N/C and points radially inward, what is the net
charge on the sphere?

1.21 A uniformly charged conducting sphere of 2.4 m

diameter has a surface charge density of 80.0 mC/m2 .
(a) Find the charge on the sphere.
(b) What is the total electric flux leaving the surface of the
sphere?
1.22
An infinite line charge produces a field of 9 × 10 4 N/C at a
distance of 2 cm. Calculate the linear charge density.

1.23
Two large, thin metal plates are parallel and close to each
other. On their inner faces, the plates have surface charge
densities of opposite signs and of magnitude 17.0 × 10 -22
C/m2 . What is E: (a) in the outer region of the first plate,
(b) in the outer region of the second plate, and (c)
between the plates?