The Electric Field

Mark Robert Baker

Lecture 5

Contents
1 Electromagnetism 1

2 Charges and Currents 1

2.1 Charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3 Electric Field 2
3.1 General Form of Electric Field Expression . . . . . . 6

4 The Superposition Principle 8

1 Electromagnetism
We now move on to the study of electromagnetism. In particular, we
will study electrostatics (electric fields produce by stationary charges
q) and magnetostatics (magnetic fields produced by a steady current
I). First we will introduce charges and currents.

2 Charges and Currents

Charges q and currents I are foundational physical quantities in
electromagnetic theory. Here we will introduce charges, and later
we will introduce currents.

1
2.1 Charges
Electric charge q (units Coloumbs [C]) is a property of objects that
can be used to determine whether or not motion will occur when
an object is placed in an electromagnetic field. They can be pos-
itive (e.g. protons have positive charge) and negative (e.g. elec-
trons have negative charge). Like charges repel one another (e.g.
positive-positive or negative-negative), whereas opposite charges at-
tract (positive-negative).

Charge q is very similar to the role mass m played in Newto-

nian gravity. In Newtonian gravity, when we place a mass in a
gravitational field, motion occurs. Similarly, placing a charge in an
electromagnetic field will cause motion. The main difference is that
mass was only positive, but charge can take positive and negative
values. In Newtonian gravity, like (positive) masses attract, and
there is no repulsion.

Similar to the Newtonian gravity equations, we can determine

the attraction or repulsion of any two charges using equations of
electromagnetic theory. We can then use Newton’s second law to
determine information about the motion of any given charge, just
like when we found the motion of an object placed in a gravitational
field.

A neutral object is one which has neither a positive nor nega-

tive net charge — a neutral object has zero net charge. Charge is
conserved, that is, the sum of all the electric charges in any closed
system is a constant. The magnitude of an electron or proton is a
natural unit of charge.

Stationary charges product electric fields which we can easily

calculate — this is the basis of electrostatics which we will study in
this course.

3 Electric Field
All of this was leading us up to the introduction of the electric field
⃗ In particular, we will consider the electrostatic field, given off by
E.

2
a single stationary charge q. This law is remarkably similar to that
of the Newtonian gravitational field, for a charge q located at the
origin,

 
⃗ 1 q 1 Qx Qy Qz
E(x, y, z) = 2
r̂ = 2 2 2 3/2
, 2 2 2 3/2
, 2
4πϵ0 |⃗r| 4πϵ0 (x + y + z ) (x + y + z ) (x + y 2 + z 2 )3/2
(1)
in fact it is basically identical! Instead of the gravitational con-
1
stant G, we have the constant 4πϵ 0
, where ϵ0 is the permittivity of
free space (another constant, which we will discuss later). We will
1 1
abbreviate this constant as k = 4πϵ 0
, where k = 4πϵ 0
= 8.988 ×
9 2 2
10 N m /C . We will focus on the electric field using this abbrevi-
ated constant k,

⃗ = kq r̂
E (2)
|⃗r|2
as we can see this is strikingly similar to the Newtonian gravita-
tional field ⃗g ,
GM
⃗g = − r̂ (3)
|⃗r|2
Instead of mass M creating a gravitational field we have charge
q creating an electric field. Instead of a negative sign we have a pos-
itive sign (since like sign masses attract, but opposite sign charges
attract). Other than that they are both inverse square fields, which
will lead to inverse square force laws.

The above formulation is assuming there is a charge at the origin

giving off this electric field. In reality that does not need to be the
case, this charge can be positioned anywhere and this equation will
still be valid. For example if we had a source below and wanted to
find the electric field at a point P ,

3
Figure 1: A possible source of the electric field, and the point P we wish to find
the electric field at. We will use R ⃗ as the physical distance between the charge
and the point. The other bold r and r’ are vectors ⃗r and ⃗r′ . The vector ⃗r is the
vector from the origin to the point we wish to calculate the electric field. The
vector ⃗r′ is the vector from the origin to the source of the electric field. The
vector R ⃗ is the vector from the source to the point we wish to calculate the
electric field, therefore this is the crucial distance we find in the definiton of the
electric field.

In 3D cartesian space, each point is defined by an (x,y,z). There-

fore the R above (we will use upper case R ⃗ instead of a bold letter)
is what we are generally referring to, only at the origin can we use
the position vector to calculate the electric field. That is because the
electric field at any point is relative to where the source is, not the
origin which is a point we arbitrarily define! Thus more generally
we have,

⃗ = kQ R̂
E (4)
R⃗2
where this can be calculated from the difference R⃗ = ⃗r −⃗r′ . Note
⃗ =R
2 ⃗ · R.
⃗ Also R̂ = ⃗
R
that R ⃗ is the unit vector. We will discuss
|R|
next lecture that if we have numerous sources with different charges
qi , then the electric field at any point will be the linear sum of all
of these contributions,

4
 n
⃗ =
X kqi
E R̂i (5)
⃗2
R
i=1 i
Furthermore, what we will see is that the force acting on any
charged particle Q located at point P is found by,

F⃗ = QE
⃗ (6)
which is very analogous to the Newtonian gravity law F⃗ = m⃗g !
Therefore the force acting on a charge particle Q at any point P
due to any number of other charged particles qi is given by,
n
X kQqi
F⃗ = R̂i (7)
⃗2
R
i=1 i
This is known as Coulomb’s law. We will focus next lecture on
it, and how to use. More simply, if we have one charged particle q
at the origin, our expressions R⃗ = ⃗r − ⃗r′ is simplified since ⃗r′ = 0
⃗ = ⃗r and we have the electric
(the source is at the origin) meaning R
field everywhere that we showed before,

⃗ = kq r̂
E (8)
|⃗r|2
thus the force acting on a particle at any point P due to a charge
q at the origin is,
1 qQ
F⃗ = r̂ (9)
4πϵ0 |⃗r|2
This simple form of Coulomb’s law is almost identical to the New-
tonian gravity law we discussed before. We will frequently be using
Coulomb’s law to calculate the force on a charged particle in an
electric field due to other stationary charged particles. Like gravity,
charged particles both create electric field and are moved by them.
A charged particle in an electric field will start to move. This accel-
eration we can calculate using Newton’s second law, where the force
acting on the particle will be due to Coulomb’s law above!

We close this lecture by noting if we abbreviate Coloumb’s law

1
using the constant k = 4πϵ 0
, and take the magnitude of the above
vector, we are left with,

5
 kqQ
F = (10)
R2
where R is the distance from the source to the charge q to the
charge we place in its field Q. This is remarkably similar to the
magnitude of the Newtonian gravitational force law,
GM m
F = (11)
R2
We will move onto using the electric field equation and Coulomb’s
law to determine the force acting on a stationary charge due to the
presence of other stationary charges.

3.1 General Form of Electric Field Expression

The equations in the previous subsection assume that the source
charge is at the origin. More generally this is not the case. In reality
that does not need to be the case, this charge can be positioned
anywhere and this equation will still be valid. For example if we
had a source below and wanted to find the electric field at a point
P,

6
Figure 2: A possible source of the electric field, and the point P we wish to find
the electric field at. We will use R⃗ as the physical distance from the charge to
the point P . The other bolt r and r’ are vectors ⃗r and ⃗r′ . The vector ⃗r is the
vector from the origin to the point we wish to calculate the electric field. The
vector ⃗r′ is the vector from the origin to the source of the electric field. The
vector R⃗ is the vector from the source to the point we wish to calculate the
electric field, therefore this is the crucial distance we find in the definition of
the electric field.

In 3D cartesian space, each point is defined by an (x,y,z). There-

fore the curly r above (below we will use upper case R ⃗ instead of
lower case curly r) is what we are generally referring to, only at the
origin can we use the position vector to calculate the electric field.
That is because the electric field at any point is relative to where
the source is, not the origin which is a point we arbitrarily define!
Thus more generally we have,

⃗ = 1 q
E R̂ (12)
⃗ 2
4πϵ0 |R|
⃗ = ⃗r −⃗r′ . Often
where this can be calculated from the difference R
this is expressed equivalently without the absolute value sign,

⃗ = 1 q
E R̂ (13)
⃗2
4πϵ0 R

7
 because R ⃗2 = R
⃗ ·R ⃗ 2 . Also R̂ = R⃗
⃗ yields the same result as |R|
⃗
|R|
⃗
is the unit vector. We will talk more about this R and how to
work with it later in this lecture. This is the general law for the
electric field due to a single point charge located anywhere in 3D
cartesian space. We will now move onto considering the case where
we have multiple point charges located anywhere in space, how can
we evaluate the electric field at any specific point P ?

4 The Superposition Principle

The superposition principle is an essential rule in electrostatics that
allows us to calculate the electric field due to a large number of
charges. It is a statement about the addition of electric field con-
tributions from numerous sources; this statement exists separate to
the electric field relationship in the previous subsection. Suppose
we have several charges q1 , q2 , . . . . For each of these charges, we
can determine the electric field associated to each as E1 , E2 , . . . .
The superposition principle states that the total electric field at any
point due to numerous sources is the linear sum of all of the con-
tributions. Therefore, we have to add the electric field vector from
each source, to get the total electric field:

Figure 3: The superposition principle states that the total electric field at any
point due to numerous sources is the linear sum of all of the contributions.
Therefore, we have to add the electric field vector from each source, to get the
total electric field.

⃗ at any
The superposition principle states that the electric field E

8
point will be a sum of the contributions from each sources:

⃗ =E
E ⃗1 + E
⃗2 + E
⃗3 + . . . (14)
Therefore using the equation 13 for each term we have,

⃗ = kq1 R̂1 + kq2 R̂2 + kq3 R̂3 + . . .

E (15)
⃗ 21
R ⃗ 22
R ⃗ 23
R
each term has a common constant which we can write out front,
!
⃗ =k q 1 q 2 q 3
E R̂ + R̂ + R̂ + . . . (16)
⃗ 21 1 R
R ⃗ 22 2 R ⃗ 23 3
what is in brackets is all ofPthe same form, which we can write
compactly as a Riemann sum ni=1 R⃗qi2 R̂i , thus,
i
n
⃗ =
X kqi
E R̂ (17)
⃗2 i
R
i=1 i

therefore the electric field at any point P can be found by the

above equation, summing up the electric field from all of the indi-
vidual points.