GAUSS’ LAW

This child acquires an

electric charge by
touching the charged
metal sphere. The
charged hairs on the
child’s head repel and
stand out.

If the child stands

inside a large, charged
metal sphere, will her
hair stand on end?
GAUSS’S LAW

OBJECTIVES:

• Familiarize charge and electric flux

• Determine the amount of charge within a closed
surface
• Calculate the Electric Flux
• Relate Gauss’s Law to Electric Flux through a closed
surface to the charged enclosed by a surface
• Locate charge on a charged conductor
 GAUSS’ LAW

• Charge and Electric Flux

• Calculating Electric Flux
• Gauss’s Law
• Applications of Gauss’s Law
• Charges on Conductors
How can you measure the charge
inside a box without measuring it?

LEFT: A box containing an unknown amount of charge

RIGHT: Using a test charge outside the box to probe the amount of charge
inside the box
Electric Flux is the rate of flow of electric field.

“Flux” came from a Latin word “fluxus” which means flow

Three cases in which there is zero net charge inside the box
and no net electric flux through the surface of the box.
The net electric flux through the surface of the box
is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net
charge enclosed by the box

In (c):

The magnitude of electric field on the surface

decreases by a factor of , but the area through
which “flows” increases by a factor of 4.

The net electric flux due to a single point charge

inside the box is independent of the size of the box
and depends only on the net charge inside the
box.
 GAUSS’ LAW

• Charge and Electric Flux

• Calculating Electric Flux
• Gauss’s Law
• Applications of Gauss’s Law
• Charges on Conductors
Analogy:
• Electric Field: Fluid Flow
• Electric Flux: Volume Flow
Rate of a Fluid
A disk of radius 0.10 m is oriented with its normal unit vector
at to a uniform electric field of magnitude
a) What is the electric flux through the disk?
b) What is the flux through the disk if it is turned so that is
perpendicular to ?
c) What is the flux through the disk if is parallel to ?

The electric flux through a disk depends on the angle between its normal
and the electric field .
An imaginary cubical surface of side L is in a region of uniform
electric field . Find the electric flux through each face of the
cube and the total flux through the cube when (a) it is oriented
with two of its faces perpendicular to and (b) the cube is
turned by an angle about a vertical axis.
A point charge is surrounded by an imaginary sphere of radius
r = 0.20 m centered on the charge. Find the resulting electric
flux through the sphere.
 GAUSS’ LAW

• Charge and Electric Flux

• Calculating Electric Flux
• Gauss’s Law
• Applications of Gauss’s Law
• Charges on Conductors
 Total electric flux of a sphere of radius R:

The flux is independent of the radius R of the

sphere
(Gauss Law)
The figure below shows the field produced by two
point charges +q and –q (an electric dipole). Find the
electric flux through each of the closed surfaces A,
B, C, and D.
 GAUSS’ LAW

• Charge and Electric Flux

• Calculating Electric Flux
• Gauss’s Law
• Applications of Gauss’s Law
• Charges on Conductors
Electric charge is distributed uniformly along an
infinitely long, thin wire. The charge per unit length is
(assumed positive). Find the electric field using
Gauss’s law.
Use Gauss’s law to find the electric field caused by a
thin, flat, infinite sheet with a uniform positive surface
charge density .
Positive electric charge Q is distributed uniformly
throughout the volume of an insulating sphere with
radius R. Find the magnitude of the electric field at a
point P a distance r from the center of the sphere.
A thin-walled, hollow sphere of radius 0.250 m has
an unknown charge distributed uniformly over its
surface. At a distance of 0.300 m from the center of
the sphere, the electric field points radially inward
and has magnitude . How much charge is on the
sphere?
 GAUSS’ LAW

• Charge and Electric Flux

• Calculating Electric Flux
• Gauss’s Law
• Applications of Gauss’s Law
• Charges on Conductors
A solid conductor with a cavity carries a total charge
of +7 nC. Within the cavity, insulated from the
conductor, is a point charge of -5 nC. How much
charge is on each surface (inner and outer) of the
conductor?