Electromagnetic Waves 1

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Dr. rer. nat. Mohamed Mokhtar Faculty of Engineering and Technology

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Energy and Potential
ENERGY EXPENDED IN MOVING A POINT
CHARGE IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

❖ The third method of finding electric fields !!!

• In moving point charge Q from initial position B over a

differential distance dL (to final position A), the work
A (final) B (initial)
expended is:
E
+ +
Fappl
dW = Fappl dL = QE dL = -QE dL
dL

gives positive result if charge is forced against the

electric field
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 A

+ Force magnitude is Fappl cos()

B
dL
 E
Fappl = -Q E +

Differential work in moving charge Q through distance dL will be:

. dL
dW = Fappl cos() dL = −QE

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The integral expression involving the scalar product of the field with a
differential path vector is called a line integral or a contour integral.
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Line Integal Evaluation

We wish to find:

where

and

using these:

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Example
An electric field is given as:

We wish to find the work done in moving a point charge of magnitude Q = 2 over the shorter arc of the circle given by

The initial point is B(1, 0, 1) and the final point is A(0.8, 0.6 ,1):

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This is the basic setup, in which the path has not yet been specified.

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We now have W

and we need to include the y dependence on x in the first integral, and the x dependence on y in the second integral:
Note that the third integral vanishes because there is no motion along the z direction.

Using the given equation for the circular path, , we rewrite the integrals:

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DEFINITION OF POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE
AND POTENTIAL

The potential difference is defined as the work done (or potential energy gained) per unit
charge.
We express this quantity in units of Joules/Coulomb, or volts:

Finally:

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Potential Difference in a Point Charge Field

In this exercise, we evaluate the work done in

moving a unit positive charge from point B to point
A, within the field associated with point charge Q.

where

A
. .B
rB
rA

+
Q

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We get:

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 Potential Field Arising From Two or
More Point Charges
We just found the difference in potential between two
positions in a point charge field:

We could perform the same calculation by specifying the

starting point at infinity, and the ending point at some In general for n charges :
general radius, r:

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Potential Associated with Continuous Charge
Distributions

Line Charge:

Surface Charge:

Volume Charge:
As we allow the number of elements to become infinite, we
obtain the integral expression:

Compare that with the expression of electric field we

had before:

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Relation Between Potential and Electric Field
The change in potential occurring over distance L depends
on the angle between this vector and the electric field; i.e., the
projection of the field along the path:

whose maximum value is: when the path vector lies along the electric field direction.

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 The differential voltage change can be written as the sum of changes of V in the three coordinate directions:

We also know that:

So that:

We therefore identify:
I.e: E = −grad V

What is the difference between divergence and

gradient??
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We now have the relation between E and V

This is obtained by using the del operator on V:

A more compact relation therefore emerges, which is applicable to static electric fields:

E is equal to the negative gradient of V

The direction of the gradient is that of the maximum rate of increase in the scalar field, or normal
to all equipotential surfaces.

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Potential Energy in a System of Two Point Charges

Q1 Q2
+ R2,1 +
Charge Q2 is brought into
Q1 has zero energy if isolated position from infinity.

The work done in bringing Q2 into position is:

This is the stored energy in the “system”, consisting of the two assembled charges.

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Potential Energy in a System of Three Point Charges
Q1 Q2

+ R2,1 +

R3,1 R3,2 Charge Q3 is brought into

position from infinity, with
Q1 and Q2 already situated.
+
Q3

The system energy is now the previous 2-charge energy plus the work done in bringing Q3 into position:

where and

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Potential Energy in a System of Four Point Charges

Charge Q4 is brought into

position from infinity, with
Q1, Q2, and Q3 already situated.
Q1 Q2
+ R2,1 +
Q4 R4,1 It’s getting complicated!
R4,2
R3,1 R3,2
+
R4,3
+
Q3

The system energy is now the previous 3-charge energy plus the work done in bringing Q4 into position:

where and
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 Again, for four charges, the stored energy is:

Joules

But if we note the definitions of the potentials, Vnm , we find the following expression to be exactly the same as the above:

The two expressions can be added to obtain a more symmetric expression, although twice the correct value:

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Stored Energy in a Continuous Charge Distribution

If we have a continuous charge, characterized by a charge density function, we use implicitly the expression

but the charge Q is replaced by the quantity dq = v dv, and the summation becomes an integral over the
charge volume:

where V is the position-dependent potential function within the charge volume.

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 We use Maxwell’s first equation to express volume charge density in terms of D:

where the vector identity, , has

Next, the divergence theorem is used on the first term, replacing the volume integral by an integral
over the surface that surrounds the volume:

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We now have:

in which the region of integration now includes all space, or wherever the field and potential exist.
We are no longer constrained to the volume taken up by the charge. This means that the surface of
integration in general lies at infinity, or at an infinite radius from the otherwise compact charge.

At the infinite distance, the potential and D fields begin to resemble those of a point charge:

and therefore:

This means that the surface integral will vanish, because the inverse cube dependence in the integrand
falls off at a more rapid rate with r than the surface area increases (surface area increases only as the
square of the radius).

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 The field energy expression now reads:

but we know that:

which leads us to the final result:

where the energy density in the

electric field is defined as:

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Thank you

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