Electric Fields Year 13
Electric Fields
Year 13
Electrostatic force
• Like charges repel, unlike charges attract
• How does this force act if charges are not in contact?– An electric field exists
Electric field lines
• An electric field is a region where a charged body experiences an electrostatic force
• Like gravitational fields, we can represent electric fields by field lines– Lines show the direction of the force experienced by a
positive test charge– Lines never cross– The more lines, the stronger the field– Lines start and stop at charges (or ∞)
• Experiment to see field patterns
Electric field patterns
Equipotentials
• Equipotentials join points in a field at the same potential– No work is done moving along equipotentials
• Equipotentials are perpendicular to field lines• Any conductor is an equipotential surface
– Because charge is free to spread out
(resourcefulphysics.org) TAP 406.3
Coulomb’s Law
• 0 is called the permittivity of free space.• Permittivity is a property of a material that is
indicative of how well it supports an electric field.• Different materials have different permittivities,
and so the value of k in Coulomb’s law will change for different materials.
Coulomb’s Law
• Inverse square law, like gravity
• Attractive (-) or repulsive (+) force
• Valid for point charges or charged spheres
221
r
qkqF
Worked example– k = 1/ (40) = 9.0 109 N m2 C-2
– mass of an electron = 9.11 10-31 kg– mass of a proton = 1.67 10-27 kg– G = 6.67 10-11 N m2 kg-2
•What is the force of repulsion between two electrons held one metre apart in a vacuum? •What is the gravitational force of attraction between them? •By what factor is the electric repulsion greater than the gravitational attraction?
•TAP 407.1
Electric field strength
• A property of the field, not the test charge
• Field strength is the Force felt by a unit charge
2r
kq
q
FE
Potential energy
• Zero electric potential energy defined at infinity
• Have to do work to bring a charge +q a distance r from a charge +Q
• Work is stored as electrical potential energy
• If two charges are opposite, it takes work to separate them, potential energy is negative.– Must keep track of signs!
+Q
Pr
+q
Infinity (∞)
r
kQqEPE
Electrical potential
• Potential is the potential energy per unit charge
– Units: J/C, or volts– A property of the field, not the charge
experiencing the field
• Field strength=-potential gradient
r
kQ
q
EPEV
dr
dVE
Potential around a positive chargePotential and electric field intensity E = - dV/dr
Potential (V)
Distance (x)
2 8 16416 4 28
High field intensity
Low field intensity
(resourcefulphysics.org)
Charged conducting sphere
• All charge resides on the outside of the sphere
• Electric field inside=0
• Potential inside is constant
Uniform electric field
• Found between two parallel plates– Equally spaced field lines– Equally spaced equipotentials
• F=EQ=ma– So a charge will experience
uniform acceleration from one plate towards the other
d
V
x
VE
d
Electron beam
cathode
+5 kV
anode
0 V
Accelerating charges
• Electrons experience a force
• Work done=QV (charge x pd between two points)=energy gained moving with field
• Found in electron guns (CRTs)
2
2
1aty
tvx x
:ntdisplaceme vertical
:ntdisplaceme horizontal
md
eV
m
Fa
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Vx=3, ax=0, Vy(t=0)=0, ay=2.
Motion of a body under constant upward acceleration
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
Robert Millikan
Millikan’s oil drop experiment
Millikan’s Apparatus
Comparing electric and gravitational fields
Electric and gravitational fields• Similarities
– For point charges or masses, the variation of force with distance follows the inverse square law.
– Both exert a force from a distance, with no contact. – The field strength of both is defined in terms of force
per unit of the property of the object that causes the force (i.e. mass and charge).
• Differences– Gravitational fields can only produce forces of
attraction, whereas electric fields can produce attraction and repulsion.
– Objects can be shielded from an electric field, they cannot however be shielded from a gravitational field
– Electrostatic force is many orders of magnitude greater than gravitational force.