CLASS XII-CHAPTER 1-ELETRIC CHARGES AND FIELDS

CHAPTER 1
ELECTRIC CHARGES AND FIELDS

Electric Charge:
It is the basic property of the material body
It is found experimentally that the charges are of two types:
• The two types of charges are positive and negative (Named by
Benjamin Franklin)
• Like charges repels and unlike charges attracts.
• It is a scalar quantity.
• SI unit of electric charge- Coulomb (c).
Note: Positively charged body means deficiency of electrons in the body
and a negatively charged body means excess of electrons.
Gold-Leaf electroscope:
A simple apparatus to detect charge on a body is called a gold-leaf
electroscope.
Apparatus: It consists of a vertical metal rod placed in a box. Two thin
gold leaves are attached to its bottom end as shown in figure.

Working: A charged object touches the metal knob at the top of the rod.
Charge flows on to the leaves and they diverge. The degree of
divergence is an indicator of the amount of charge.
Basic Properties of Electric Charge
1. Unlike charges attract and like charges repel.
2. Charge is conserved : Charges can neither be created nor be
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destroyed.

3. Electric Charge is Quantized:

Charge on anybody is the integral multiple of electronic charge. This is
called quantization of charge.
i.e. q = ± ne, n = 1, 2, 3, ……….
4. Additivity of Charges:
If a system contains n charges q1, q2, q3…qn, then the total change of
the system is q1 + q2 + q3 +……+qn.
5. Charge have only magnitude and hence it is a scalar quantity
Conductors and Insulators
Conductors
• Substances which allow passage of charges.
• E.g. : Metals, human body etc.
• The charge transferred to a conductor is distributed over the entire
surface of the conductor.
Insulators
• Substances which does not allow passage of charges.
• E.g.: plastic, rubber etc.
• The charge transferred to an insulator stays at the same place.
Earthing (Or) Grounding:
When a charged body bring in contact with earth, all the excess charge
pass to the earth through the connecting conductor. This process of
sharing the charges with the earth is called grounding or earthing.
Earthing provides protection to electrical circuits and appliances.
Methods of charging
A body can be charged in different ways.
 Charging by friction
 Charging by induction

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 Charging by conduction

1. Charging by friction:
When two bodies are rubbed each other, electrons in one body (in which
electrons are held less tightly) transferred to second body (in which
electrons are held more tightly).
Explanation: When a glass rod is rubbed with silk, some of the electrons
from the glass are transferred to silk. Hence glass rod gets +ve charge
and silk gets -ve charge.
2. Charging by induction:
The phenomenon by which a neutral body gets charged by the presence
of neighboring charged body is called electrostatic induction.
Explanation:
Step I: Place two metal spheres on an insulating stand and bring in
contact as shown in figure (a).

Step II: Bring a positively charged rod near to these spheres. The free
electrons in the spheres are attracted towards the rod. Hence, one side
of the sphere becomes negative and the other side becomes positive as
shown in figure (b).

Step III: Separate the spheres by a small distance by keeping the rod
nearto sphere A. The two spheres are found to be oppositely charged as
shown in figure (c).

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 CLASS XII-CHAPTER 1-ELETRIC CHARGES AND FIELDS

3. Charging by conduction:
Charging a body with actual contact of another body is called charging
by conduction.
Explanation:

If a neutral conducting body (A) is brought in contact with positively

charged conducting body (B), the neutral body gets positively charged.

Coulomb’s Law
The force of attraction or repulsion between two stationary electric
charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitude of the
charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them.
Explanation:

Consider two point charges q1 and q1. Which are separated by a

distance ’r’. The force between the changes.

The constant k in eqn. is usually put as

so that Coulombs law is written as

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Where, F is the force between two point charges, q1 and q2 are

magnitude of charges, r is the distance between these charges and ε0 is
permittivity of free space and it is given by, ε0 = 8.854×10-12 C 2 /Nm2 .
The value of k comes 9 × 109 Nm2/ C2
When same charges are placed at same distance in a medium then the
force between them becomes,

So we have,

Coulombs law in vector form

Since force is vector, we need to write Coulombs law in vector notation.
Coulomb’s force is a mutual force, it means that if charge ‘q1‘exerts a
force on charge ‘q2‘then q2 also exerts an equal and opposite force on
q1.
If charge q1 exerts an electrostatic force “F12“ charge q2 and q2 exerts
electrical force F21 on charge q1.If r12 represents the direction of force
from charge q1 to charge q2 and r21 is the unit vector which represents
the direction of force from charge q2 to q1,

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Coulomb’s force law between two point charges q1 and q2 located at r1

and r2 is then expressed as

According to newton’s 3rd law:

F21= -F12
This expression shows that coulombs law obeys the newton’s third law
of motion.
Force between multiple charges
Consider a system of charges q1, q2, q3……qn. Let q1 be the given
charge such that the other charges q2, q3….qn exert a force on q1.
Here the distance of separation between the charges q2, q3… qn and
that of q1 is given by r12, r13……r1n respectively.
So the net force experienced on q1 is the sum of the force experienced
each charge on it. Then we use coulomb’s law here

The force on q1 due to q2,q3…..qn is given by,

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F1n = k q1qn r1n

r1n2
Then total force on charge q1 due to other charges will be

Experimentally it is verified that force on any charge due to a number of

other charges is the vector sum of all the forces due to individual
charges. This is termed as the principle of superposition.
The individual forces are unaffected due to the presence of other
charges.
Electric Field
The space around an electric charge in which its influence can be felt is
known as the electric field.
The concept electric field is introduced to explain the interaction
between two charges.
Electric field intensity: Strength or intensity of the electric field at any
point is defined as the force acting on a unit positive charge placed at
that point.

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Mathematical expression of electric field intensity:

 Electric Field Intensity is a vector quantity.

 It is denoted by ‘E’.
 Formula: Electric Field = F/q.
 Unit of E is N/C
Electric field due to a system of charges:
Consider a system of charges q1, q2………..qn. Let P be point at distances
r1p, r2p,………..rnp from charges q1, q2,……..qn respectively. According to
super position principle, total electric field at ‘p’ due to all other charges,

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Physical Significance of Electric Field:

Electric field explains the electrical environment of a system of charges.
Electric field help us to explain the interaction between two charges at
rest or in motion.
Electric Field Lines
These are imaginary lines which provides the direction of electric field

Properties of Electric Lines of Force

Field lines due to some simple charge configurations

 An electric line of force originates from positive charge and
ends on negative charge.
 The tangent drawn at a point on an electric line of force will
give the direction of electric field at that point.
 Two lines of force never intersect each other. (If they cut
each other, at the point of intersection there will be two

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tangents. This indicates that there will be two directions of

electric field at the same point which is impossible).
 The number of electric lines of force passing normally
through an area is directly proportional to the strength of the
electric field.
 Electric field lines due to static charge never form closed
loops.
 In a uniform electric field, lines of force are parallel.
Electric Dipole
A pair of equal and opposite charges separated by small distance
is called electric dipole.

The strength of an electric dipole is measured by a vector quantity

known as electric dipole moment (p) which is the product of the
charge (q) and separation between the charges (2l).
Dipole moment (p):
Electric dipole moment (p) is defined as product of magnitude of charge
and dipole length.
It is a vector quantity.

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Derivation steps:

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 CLASS XII-CHAPTER 1-ELETRIC CHARGES AND FIELDS

Physical significance of dipole: The molecules of dielectrics may be

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classified into two classes:

(i) Polar molecules: In polar molecule, the centers of negative charges
and positive charges do not coincide. Therefore they have a
permanent electric dipole moment.
Example: H2O, HCl, etc.
(ii) Nonpolar molecule: In nonpolar molecule, the centres of negative
charges and positive charges coincide. Therefore they have no
permanent electric dipole moment.
Example: CO2, CH4, etc.
Note: In the presence of external electric field, a nonpolar molecule
becomes a polar molecule.
Dipole in A Uniform External Field
Consider an electric dipole of dipole moment p= q x2l placed in a
uniform electric field.

Because of the two equal and opposite forces acting at the two ends
of the dipole, a torque is experienced by the dipole. So the dipole will
rotate till it becomes parallel to the electric field.
Torque = Force x Ʇ distance
= qE xBC
= qE 2l sin ϴ
= (q 2l) Esin ϴ
= pEsin ϴ
The magnitude of this torque is τ = pE sin θ and is maximum when θ
=90°. This torque tends to rotate the dipole and align it with the electric
field. Once p⃗ p→ is aligned with E⃗ E→, the total torque on the dipole
becomes zero.
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Derivation:

What happens when an electric dipole is placed in a non- uniform

electric field?
Ans: The dipole will have both rotational and translational motion. The
rotational motion will stop, when the dipole becomes parallel to the
electric field.
Continuous Charge Distribution
Charges on a body may be distributed in different ways according to the
nature of body. Depending upon this distribution of charge, we deal with
different types of charge densities,

1. Line charge density, λ

2. Surface charge density, σ or
3. Volume charge density, ρ

1. Linear charge density (λ):

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Charge per unit length is called linear charge density. If ΔQ is the charge
contained in a line element Δl,
Linear charge density
λ = ΔQ/Δl
Where ΔQ is the charge contained in that line element. The unit of
λ is C/m or Coulomb per meter.

2. Surface charge density (σ): Charge per unit area is called surface
charge density.

If ΔQ is the charge contained in a area element Δs, surface charge

density can be written as

σ = ΔQ/ΔS

The unit of σ is C/m2 or Coulomb per square metres.

3. Volume charge density (ρ): Charge per unit volume is called volume
change density. If ΔQ is the charge contained in a volume Δv, volume
charge density.

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ρ = ΔQ/Δv

The unit of ρ is C/m 3 Coulomb per cubic meters.

Gauss’s Law

Gauss’s theorem states that the total electric flux over a closed surface
is 1/ε0 times the total charge enclosed by the surface.

Gauss’s theorem may be expressed

Proof:
Consider a point charge q placed at a point. Imagine a sphere of
radius r with q as the centere.The total electric flux through the

sphere,

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Applications of Gauss’s Law

Gauss’s law can be used to find electric field due to system of some
symmetric charge configurations. Some examples are given below.

1. Field Due To An Infinitely Long Straight Uniformly Charged Wire:

Consider a thin infinitely long straight rod conductor having change

density λ. (λ = ql)
To find the electric field at P, we imagine a Gaussian surface
passing through P.
The top and bottom surfaces of the cylinder lie parallel to the

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electric field. Thus the angle between area vector and the electric
field is 90 degrees and cos θ = 0.
Thus, the electric flux is only due to the curved surface
According to Gauss Law,

Φ = → E.d → A

Φ = Φcurved + Φtop + Φbottom

Φ = → E . d → A = ∫E . dA cos 0 + ∫E . dA cos 90° + ∫E . dA cos 90°

Φ = ∫E . dA × 1

Due to radial symmetry, the curved surface is equidistant from the

line of charge and the electric field in the surface has a constant
magnitude throughout. Integrating over the Gaussian surface, we
get (we need not integrate the upper and lower surface because,
electric lines do not pass through these surfaces.)

Φ = ∫E . dA = E ∫dA = E . 2πrl

The net charge enclosed by the surface is:

q= λ.l

Using Gauss theorem,

Φ = E × 2πrl = q/ε0 = λl/ε0

E × 2πrl = λl/ε0

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E = λ/2πrε0
Integrating over the Gaussian surface, we get (we need not
integrate the upper and lower surface because, electric lines do
not pass through these surfaces.)

2. Field Due To A Uniformly Charged Infinite Plane Sheet

Consider an infinite thin plane sheet of change of density σ. To find

electric field at a point P (at a distance ‘r’ from sheet), imagine a
Gaussian surface in the form of cylinder having area of cross
section ‘ds’.
According to Gauss’s law we can write,

(Since q = σds)
But electric field passes only through end surfaces, so we get ∫ds =
2ds

E is directed away from the charged sheet, if a is positive and

directed towards the sheet if a is negative.

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3. Field Due To a Uniformly Charged Thin Spherical Shell:

Consider a uniformly changed hollow spherical conductor of radius R.
Let ‘q’ be the total charge on the surface.

To find the electric field at P (at a distance r from the Centre), we

imagine a Gaussian spherical surface having radius ‘r’.
Then, according to Gauss’s theorem we can write,

The electric field is constant, at a distance ‘r’. So we can write,

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Case I: Electric field inside the shell is zero.

Case II: At the surface of shell r = R, then

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