Static Electricity

About six hundred years before the birth of Christ, Greek Philosopher Thales (625 BC) first
observed that, if amber or soleman’s stone is rubbed with silk it can attract small pieces of
paper. The name electricity is originated from electron, the Greek name of amber.
Charge: The fundamental and characteristic property of fundamental particle is called
charge.
Point charge: If the charged body is very small, like a point then the charged of the body is
called point charge.
Electricity: The nature and effect of static or moving charge is called electricity.
Static electricity: The nature and effect of static charge is called static electricity
Current Electricity: The nature and effect of moving charge is called current electricity
Coulomb’s Law:
Statement: At a particular medium, the attractive or repulsive force between two point
charges is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between the charges.
Explanation: Let two charges are situated at points A and B, magnitude of the charges are q1
and q2 respectively and d be the distance between them.

Now, according to the coulombs law, attractive or repulsive force between them can be
represented as,

Here C is the proportionality constant whose magnitude depends on the nature of the medium
between the charges.

In case of vacuum medium we can write,

Thus, for vacuum the form of Coulomb’s law can be written as,
In case of air medium, the form of Coulomb’s law can also be written as,

Problem 1: Two charges, one coulomb each, are separated from each other by a
distance of 1 Km. what is the force between them?
Problem 2: When two equally charged pithballs are kept 2 mm apart they repeal each
other with a force of 4.5×10-5 N. Find the charge on each ball.

Electric Field

The field or space around a charge particle where its force can be experienced by any other charged
particle is called the electric field of former charge.

When a charge particle enters the electric field of another charge particle it experiences a
force as per Coulomb’s law. In other word, electric field is the region around a charge
particle where the lines of force can be felt by another charge by getting repulsed or attracted
as per their sign of charge.

Electric Field Strength or Electric Field Intensity

The force acting on a unit positive charge inside an electric field is termed as electric field
strength or electric field intensity.

Electric field intensity can be determined by Coulomb’s law.

q1 q2

According to this law, the force ‘F’ between two point charges having charge q1 and
q2 Coulomb and placed at a distance ‘d’ meter from each other is given by,
⃗ (1)
 ⃗

In case of unit positive charge, q2 = + 1

Now, let us put q2 = + 1 Coulomb and let us denote force F by E in the equation (1), and by
doing these we get,
⃗

Unit of Electric Field intensity is NC-1

Problem 3: A small sphere charge of 1.6 × 10-9 C is placed in air. Find the electric
intensity at a point 0.15 m away from the charge.

Electric Potential:

Electric potential at a point in an electric field is defined as the amount of work to be done to
bring a unit positive electric charge from infinity to that point.

The unit of electric potential is Volt(V)

Problem-4: If 10 C charge is placed on the surface of a sphere of 10 cm radius, what is

the electric potential at its surface?

Electric Charge Density:

The electric charge density can be written by the ratio between total charge of a field by its
total area/volume

 Charge density in one dimension is given by

Where, Q = total electric charge, l = length of line
 Charge density in two dimension formula is given by,
Where, Q= total electric charge, A = area

 The volume charge density in three dimensions is given by,

Where, Q= total electric charge, v = volume

 The charge density in terms of electric field is given by,

Where, E = electric field intensity, = permittivity

Problem: Calculate the surface charge density of a conductor whose charge is 5 C in an area of 10 m2.
Solution:
Surface charge density formula is given by,
Given:
= Q / A = 5 / 10 Charge Q = 5 C
Therefore, = 0.5 C/m2 Area A = 10 m2

Capacitor
A capacitor is a device which stores electric charge.

 A capacitor stores an electrical charge between the two plates

 A basic capacitor has two parallel plates separated by an insulating material
 The insulator is a dielectric material, therefore no current flows through the capacitor
 Capacitors vary in shape and size, but the basic configuration is two conductors carrying
equal but opposite charges.

Take two electrical conductors (things that let electricity flow through them) and separate
them with a dielectric material (a material that doesn't let electricity flow very well) and you
make a capacitor: something that can store electrical energy.

Battery Capacitor
Battery is a source of energy for a circuit Capacitor is a passive element, which draws
energy from the circuit, store and release it.
Usually battery is a DC component Capacitor is mostly used for AC
applications.
Battery provides a relatively constant voltage Discharging voltage gets rapidly decreased
when discharging for capacitors.
A battery uses chemicals to store electrical A capacitor generally releases its energy
energy and release it very slowly through a much more rapidly—often in seconds or less
circuit
Definition of Capacitance of a capacitor
The capacitance of capacitor is defined as the amount of charge required in each plate of the
capacitor to maintain unit potential difference between the plates.
If Q charge is given in each plate of the capacitor and the potential difference between the
plate is V, then the capacitance of the capacitor is,

Capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor:

A parallel plate capacitor consists of two large plane parallel conducting plates separated by a
small distance. Let A be the area of each plate and (d) be the separation between them. The
two plates have charges Q and –Q.

Then the capacitance of the capacitor is,

We also know that,

or, ( )

( )

Now putting this value of V in equation-1 we get,

 This is the required expression for the capacitance of a plate capacitor.

Problem 5:
The area of a parallel plate capacitor is 1.4 m2 and the distance between the two plates
in air is 0.03 m. Find the capacitance of the capacitor, Where = 8.854 × 10-12 Fm-1 .

Capacitors in series and parallel combinations

i) Series combination of capacitors

Problem 6:
If 5μF, 2μF and 1μF capacitors are connected in series combination. Calculate the resultant
capacitance.

ii) Parallel combination of capacitors

CP=C1+C2+ C3...........

Problem 7:
If 4μF, 8μF and 6μF capacitors are connected in parallel combination. Calculate the resultant
capacitance.