W02D2

Gauss’s Law

1
 From Last Class
Electric Field Using Coulomb and Integrating

1) Dipole: E falls off like 1/r3

1) Spherical charge: E falls off like 1/r2

1) Line of charge: E falls off like 1/r

(infinite)

4) Plane of charge: E uniform on

(infinite) either side of plane
2
 Announcements
Math Review Week Three Tuesday from 9-11 pm in
26-152Vector Calculus

PS 2 due Week Three Tuesday at 9 pm in boxes

outside 32-082 or 26-152

W02D3 Reading Assignment Course Notes: Chapter

Course Notes: Sections 3.6, 3.7, 3.10

Make sure your clicker is registered

3
 Outline

Electric Flux

Gauss’s Law

Calculating Electric Fields using Gauss’s

Law

4
 Gauss’s Law

The first Maxwell Equation!

A very useful computational technique to find the

electric field E when the source has ‘enough
symmetry’.

5
 Gauss’s Law – The Idea

The total “flux” of field lines penetrating any

of these closed surfaces is the same and
depends only on the amount of charge inside
6
 Gauss’s Law – The Equation

qenclosed
E   E  dA 
closed
surface S
0

Electric flux  E (the surface integral of E over

closed surface S) is proportional to charge
enclosed by the volume enclosed by S
7
 Electric Flux
Case I: E is a uniform vector field
perpendicular to planar surface S of area A
 
 E   E  dA
 E   EA
Our Goal: Always reduce
problem to finding a
surface where we can
take E out of integral and
get simply E*Area 8
 Electric Flux
Case II: E is uniform vector field directed
at angle  to planar surface S of area A

n̂  E   E  dA
dA  dA nˆ

 E  EAcos 
9
 Concept Question: Flux
The electric flux through the planar surface
below (positive unit normal to left) is:

+q n̂ -q

1. positive.
2. negative.
3. zero.
4. Not well defined. 10
 Concept Question Answer: Flux
Answer: 2. The flux is negative.

+q n̂ E -q

The field lines go from left to right,

opposite the assigned normal direction.
Hence the flux is negative.
 Open and Closed Surfaces

A rectangle is an open surface — it does NOT contain a volume

A sphere is a closed surface — it DOES contain a volume
12
 Area Element: Closed Surface
Case III: E not uniform, surface curved
For closed surface, dA is normal to surface
and points outward ( from inside to outside)
d E  E  dA
d E  0 if E points out

d E  0 if E points in
E   d  E   E  dA 13
 Group Problem Electric Flux:
Sphere
Consider a point-like
charged object with charge
Q located at the origin.
What is the electric flux on a
spherical surface (Gaussian
surface) of radius r ?

14
 Arbitrary Gaussian Surfaces

Q
E  
closed
E  dA 
0
surface S

True for all surfaces such as S1, S2 or S3

Why? As area gets bigger E gets smaller
15
 Gauss’s Law

qenclosed
E  
closed
E  dA 
0
surface S

Note: Integral must be over closed surface

16
 Concept Question: Flux thru Sphere
The total flux through the below spherical
surface is

+q

1. positive (net outward flux).

2. negative (net inward flux).
3. zero.
4. Not well defined. 17
Concept Question Answer: Flux thru Sphere
Answer: 3. The total flux is zero

+
q

We know this from Gauss’s Law:

qenclosed
E  
closed
E  dA 
0
surface S

No enclosed charge  no net flux.

Flux in on left cancelled by flux out on right
 Concept Question: Gauss’s Law
The grass seeds figure shows
the electric field of three charges
with charges +1, +1, and -1,
The Gaussian surface in the
figure is a sphere containing two
of the charges. The electric flux
through the spherical Gaussian
surface is

1. Positive
2. Negative
3. Zero
4. Impossible to determine
without more information.

19
 Concept Question Answer: Gauss’s Law
Answer 3: Zero. The field lines
around the two charged objects
inside the Gaussian surface are
the field lines associated with a
dipole, so the charge enclosed in
the Gaussian surface is zero.
Therefore the electric flux on the
surface is zero.

Note that the electric field E is

clearly NOT zero on the surface
of the sphere. It is only the
INTEGRAL over the spherical
surface of E dotted into dA that is
zero.

20
 Virtual Experiment
Gauss’s Law Applet

Bring up the Gauss’s Law Applet and

answer the experiment survey questions

http://web.mit.edu/viz/EM/visualizations/electrostatics/flux/closedSurfaces/closed.htm

21
Choosing Gaussian Surface In
Doing Problems
qenclosed
E  
closed
E  dA 
0
surface S
True for all closed surfaces
Useful (to calculate electric field ) for
some closed surfaces for some
problems with lots of symmetry.
Desired E: Perpendicular to surface and uniform on surface.
Flux is EA or -EA.

Other E: Parallel to surface. Flux is zero

22
 Symmetry & Gaussian Surfaces
Desired E: perpendicular to surface and constant
on surface. So Gauss’s Law useful to calculate
electric field from highly symmetric sources

Source Symmetry Gaussian Surface

Spherical Concentric Sphere

Cylindrical Coaxial Cylinder

Planar Gaussian “Pillbox”

23
 Using Gauss’s Law to do
Problems
1. Based on the source, identify regions in which to calculate
electric field.

2. Choose Gaussian surface S: Symmetry

3. Calculate E   E  dA
S
4. Calculate qenc, charge enclosed by surface S

5. Apply Gauss’s Law to calculate electric field:

qenclosed

closed
E  dA 
0
surface S
24
 Examples:
Spherical Symmetry
Cylindrical Symmetry
Planar Symmetry

25
 Group Problem Gauss: Spherical Symmetry

+Q uniformly distributed throughout non-conducting

solid sphere of radius a. Find E everywhere.

26
Concept Question: Spherical Shell
We just saw that in a solid sphere
of charge the electric field grows
linearly with distance. Inside the a
charged spherical shell at right
(r<a) what does the electric field Q
do?
1. Zero
2. Uniform but Non-Zero
3. Still grows linearly
4. Some other functional form (use Gauss’ Law)
5. Can’t determine with Gauss Law
27
Concept Question Answer: Flux thru Sphere
Answer: 1. Zero
Q
a

Spherical symmetry
 Use Gauss’ Law with spherical surface.
Any surface inside shell contains no charge
 No flux
E = 0!
P04 -
 Demonstration
Field Inside Spherical Shell
(Grass Seeds):

29
 Worked Example: Planar Symmetry

Consider an infinite thin slab

with uniform positive charge
density  . Find a vector
expression for the direction
and magnitude of the electric
field outside the slab. Make
sure you show your Gaussian
closed surface.

30
 Gauss: Planar Symmetry

Symmetry is Planar

E   E xˆ
Use Gaussian Pillbox
x̂
Note: A is arbitrary (its
size and shape) and
Gaussian
should divide out Pillbox

31
 Gauss: Planar Symmetry
Total charge enclosed: qenclosed   A
NOTE: No flux through side of cylinder, only endcaps

E   E  dA  E  dA  EAEndcaps
S S
+
+
x
+
A
 E 2 A
+
qenclosed
 +
0 0 +
+
A
E + E
 +
E +
2 0 +


+

32
 Concept Question: Superposition

Three infinite sheets of

charge are shown above.
The sheet in the middle is
negatively charged with
charge per unit area 2 , and
the other two sheets are
positively charged with
charge per unit area  .
Which set of arrows (and
zeros) best describes the
electric field?

33
Concept Question Answer: Superposition
Answer 2 . The fields of each of the plates are shown in the
different regions along with their sum.

34
 Group Problem: Cylindrical Symmetry
An infinitely long rod has a uniform positive
linear charge density  .Find the direction and
magnitude of the electric field outside the rod.
Clearly show your choice of Gaussian closed
surface.

35
 Electric Fields

1) Dipole: E falls off like 1/r3

1) Spherical charge: E falls off like 1/r2

1) Line of charge: E falls off like 1/r

(infinite)

4) Plane of charge: E uniform on

(infinite) either side of plane
36