Electric Field due to Continuous Charge

Distributions
Mark Robert Baker
Lecture 7

Contents
1 Electric Field Models 1
1.1 Sphere of Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Infinite Wire of Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Infinite Plane of Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Electric Field Lines 4

3 Electric Dipoles 6
3.1 Torque on an Electric Dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Electric Dipole Potential Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4 Electric Field Integrals 9

5 Electric Field Integral - Ring of Charge 12

5.1 Limit as x >> a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1 Electric Field Models

In the previous lectures we have been focusing on calculating the
electric field due to a number of point charges, such as electrons.
The electric field due to any number of point charges was calculated
using,

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 n
⃗ = 1 X qi
E R̂ (1)
⃗2 i
4πϵ0 i=1 Ri

Point charges are the simplest form of a stationary charge pro-

ducing an electric field, but there are numerous other charges dis-
tributions which we can develop simple equations for. The various
electric field models which we will consider are summarized in the
following diagram:

Figure 1: Different electric field models which we will consider in this course:
point charges, infinite plane of charge, infinite wire of charge, and a sphere of
charge. The R is the sphere diagram is referring to the radius of the sphere, we
will call the radius a instead to avoid confusion.

In each of these examples above the r refers to the magnitude |⃗r|

which is the distance from the charged object to the point where we
⃗ = ⃗r since ⃗r′ would
are calculating the electric field. This assume R
be zero (the sources are going to be located at 0/ along an axis).
Therefore in these new models we consider ⃗r is simply the distance
from the object to the point in question.

Below we will discuss each of these relationships. These relation-

ships can be determined by integration, but we will not do this in
this lecture. For each object we will assume a continuous charge dis-
tribution such that the charge at any point in the object is the same.

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1.1 Sphere of Charge
The sphere of charge model gives us a model for a charged sphere.
You can think of this object as a continuous distribution of charge
across a sphere, as opposed to just being located at a single point
with point charges. For a sphere of charge Q and radius a, we have
the expression:

⃗ = 1 Q
E r̂ , f or r > a (2)
4πϵ0 ⃗r2
as you can see this formula is virtually identical to the field of a
point charge. It tells us that the electric field anywhere outside of
the sphere is the same as it would be if all of the charge was present
at a single point at the center of the sphere.

1.2 Infinite Wire of Charge

If we have an infinite wire of charge, the electric field a distance r
away from the wire in any direction is given by the equation,

⃗ = 1 2λ
E r̂ (3)
4πϵ0 r
the r̂ here is pointing radially from the point on the wire to the
point above the wire where the electric field is being calculated, it
is not always from e.g. the origin. We will discuss the electric field
lines of this object later in the lecture to emphasize this point. This
model is relevant for a wire of stationary charge.

The λ variable is known as the linear charge density,

Q
λ= (4)
L
it is similar to mass density we have discussed in the past, where
L is the length of the wire that contains charge Q. It tells us the
charge per unit length on the wire. It is assumed to be a constant
in this model, but we could develop a different model for a non-
constant λ if we wanted to.

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 If the charge Q is negative, all electric field vectors will point
towards the wire. If the charge Q is positive, all electric field vectors
will point away from the wire.

1.3 Infinite Plane of Charge

If we have an infinite plane of charge, the electric field a distance
at any point away from the wire in any direction is given by the
equation,

E⃗ = η r̂ (5)
2ϵ0
the r̂ here is pointing radially from the point on the plane to the
point above the plane where the electric field is being calculated, it
is not always from e.g. the origin. This result is very interesting,
that the magnitude of the field does not depend on how far away
you are from the plane. It is the same everywhere! We will discuss
the electric field lines of this object later in the lecture to emphasize
this point. Planes of charges are relevant for e.g. capacitor models.

The η variable is known as the surface charge density,

Q
η= (6)
A
it is similar to mass density we have discussed in the past, where
A is the area of the plane that contains charge Q. It tells us the
charge per unit area on the plane. It is assumed to be a constant
in this model, but we could develop a different model for a non-
constant η if we wanted to.

If the charge Q is negative, all electric field vectors will point

towards the plane. If the charge Q is positive, all electric field vectors
will point away from the plane.

2 Electric Field Lines

Each of our electric field models can be used to determine the electric
field vector at any point. Since there are infinitely many points to
consider, sometimes we will draw electric field lines which describe

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the orientation of the electric field relative to the object, for example
if each of our objects were positively charged,

Figure 2: Different electric field models and the electric field lines associated to
them if all objects consisted of positive charges.

now we know the magnitude of these vectors change in e.g. the

point charge case, decreasing as 1/r2 as we move away from the
charge,

Figure 3: Electric field vectors for a positive and negative point charge.

So the field lines are more important to indicate the direct and
flow of the field vectors. They are continuous lines which flow
through the electric field vectors. To indicate a greater magnitude,
lines are drawn closer together. This can be expressed in more com-
plicated situations, such as diagram (c) below,

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Figure 4: Electric field lines for a positive and negative point charge, and an
electric dipole.

The third diagram, an electric dipole, is an important charge

distribution which we will discuss in the next section. We will also
show two equal charges, for example two positive charges,

Figure 5: Electric field lines for two positive charges.

3 Electric Dipoles
An electric dipole is two equal but opposite charges separated by a
small distance. This model is important as it is used to represent
many phenomena such as a water molecule. The basic picture is

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given below,

Figure 6: Electric field at two points due to a dipole.

We can calculate the electric field anywhere due to a dipole, how-

ever on the two axis above these expressions are dramatically simpli-
fied. First, the dipole moment p⃗ is a vector defined by the magnitude
q of each charge times the separation s between them,

p⃗ = qsŝ (7)
where ŝ is pointing from the negative to the positive charge,

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 Figure 7: The dipole moment vector.

For the electric field at the point on the y axis we have the ex-
pression,

⃗ = − 1 2⃗p
E (8)
4πϵ0 |⃗r|3
where the distance ⃗r is from the origin (center of the dipole).
Similarly, the electric field on the x axis can be calculated as,

⃗ = − 1 p⃗
E (9)
4πϵ0 |⃗r|3
Therefore using either of these relationships we can determine
the electric field anywhere on either axis for a dipole aligned on the
y axis with the center at the origin.

3.1 Torque on an Electric Dipole

The torque on a dipole in an electric field is given by,

⃗
⃗τ = p⃗ × E (10)
The magnitude of this can be calculated from the magnitude of
the cross product, for example the sin definition of the cross product,

τ = pE sin ϕ (11)

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 therefore if the electric field is perpendicular to the dipole mo-
ment vector p⃗, the torque is at a maximum. If the electric field is
parallel to the dipole moment vector, there is no torque.

When a dipole is in an electric field, the field has a force in an

opposite direction for both charges, which is what torques the dipole.

3.2 Electric Dipole Potential Energy

The potential energy for an electric dipole in an electric field is given
by the relationship,

⃗
U = −⃗p · E (12)
Therefore if the two vectors are perpendicular, there is no poten-
tial energy. If they are aligned in the same direction, U = −pE. If
they are in opposite directions but still parallel, the potential energy
is at a maximum U = pE.

4 Electric Field Integrals

When we wished to determine the electric field at a point P due to
n charges, we used the superposition principle to add up the electric
field due to each charge at point P ,
n
⃗ =
X kqi
E R̂i (13)
⃗2
R
i=1 i

⃗ i is the physical distance from each charge to the point

where R
P,

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Figure 8: 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.

As we have seen in several other areas of physics so far, such as

when we want to find the moment of inertia for a continuous mass
distribution where the point mass summation definition can be ex-
pressed as an integral definition, we will have an integral definition
for the electric field which we can use to calculate the electric field
at point P due to a continuous charge distribution.

The integral definition for the electric field is based on our sum-
mation definiton,
n
⃗ =
X kqi
E R̂i (14)
⃗2
R
i=1 i
where in the electric field integral the qi are replaced by dq, the
infinitesimal charge which is a part of the continuous charge distri-
bution whose electric field we are calculating at point P . The R is

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still the physical distance at each charge dq to the point P . We are
left with the relationship,
Z
⃗ = k
E R̂dq (15)
R2
since we typically want to compute our integrals for a particular
charge distribution over a spacial coordinate, we often write this
differential for linear, surface and volume charge densities (e.g. a
wire, plane and sphere, like we discussed above). In this lecture we
are going to compute only linear charge densities with some constant
charge density λ. In this case we can write the electric field integral
as,
Z
⃗ kλ
E= R̂dℓ (16)
R2
where dℓ is some infinitesimal distance. We will focus on the
example of a ring of charge because it will allow us to solve a very
simple integral. In addition, we will use some simplifications to
avoid having to solve the general vector integral above. The basic
idea is that the electric field is still just the summation of all of the
electric field contributions of all of the infinitesimal charges, so if we
can reduce our problem to e.g. a 1D problem in the x direction, the
total electric field Ex is the sum of all of the infinitesimal dEx ,
Z
Ex = dEx (17)

in 2D or 3D problem we can still work in the components,

Z
Ey = dEy (18)
Z
Ez = dEz (19)

where the total electric field vector is,

⃗ =< Ex , Ey , Ez >
E (20)
working in components is how we will solve the problem in the
following section.

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5 Electric Field Integral - Ring of Charge
Suppose we have a ring of charge, with total charge Q,

Figure 9: The electric field at a point on the x axis due to a ring of charge on
the y-z plane, centered around the origin. Note that in the above diagram, r is
what we have been referring to as the physical distance R.

This problem is a good one to start with, because even though

we wish two find the electric field vector,

⃗ =< Ex , Ey , Ez >
E (21)
we know that in the y and z components, all of the fields will
cancel due to symmetry (everywhere on the ring has an equal and
opposite component on the other side of the ring which will cancel
out). Therefore, we can immediately know that two of the three
component integrals must be zero without performing any calcula-
tions,
Z
Ey = dEy = 0 (22)
Z
Ez = dEz = 0 (23)

this leaves us with only one nonzero component which we will

have to calculate,

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 Z
Ex = dEx (24)

to determine dEx , we could generally use the unit vector approach

like we did for point charges. To keep things simple here, we will
use trigonometry to determine this component. Returning to our
diagram,

Figure 10: The electric field at a point on the x axis due to a ring of charge on
the y-z plane, centered around the origin. Note that in the above diagram, r is
what we have been referring to as the physical distance R.

we see that using trigonometry,

dEx
cos α = (25)
dE
thus,

dEx = dE cos α (26)

thus we can use this expression to determine dEx . We know cos α
from the diagram,
x
cos α = (27)
R
and we know that the for an infinitesimal point dQ the electric
field dE is,

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 kdQ
dE = (28)
R2
thus for dEx we have,
kdQ x
dEx = (29)
R2 R
where R is a constant for all points on the ring because the phys-
ical distance from the ring to P is the same for all points on the
ring! This distance can be found from the diagram as,
√
R = x 2 + a2 (30)
inserting this into dEx we have,
kdQ x
dEx = √ (31)
x2 2
+ a x + a2
2

which can be expressed more elegantly as,

kxdQ
dEx = (32)
(x2 + a2 )3/2
We know we need to integrate around the circular ring with
charge density λ. The arc of the ring can be separated into bits
ds for each dQ. Therefore the charge per unit length is,
dQ
λ= −→ dQ = λds (33)
ds
inserting this expression into dEx we have,
kxλ
dEx = ds (34)
(x2 + a2 )3/2
we now need to integrate around the entire circumference of the
circle, in other words, all 2πa of arc s.
Z
Ex = dEx (35)
Z 2πa
kxλ
Ex = ds (36)
0 (x2 + a2 )3/2

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 however, we have an integral where the entire integrand is a con-
stant for the entire ring!
kxλ
= constant (37)
(x2 + a2 )3/2
therefore we can pull it out of the integral,
Z 2πa
kxλ
Ex = 2 1ds (38)
(x + a2 )3/2 0
integrating we have to only take the antiderivative of 1,
kxλ
Ex = [s]2πa (39)
(x2 + a2 )3/2 0
kxλ
Ex = [2πa − 0] (40)
(x2 + a2 )3/2
2πakxλ
Ex = (41)
(x2 + a2 )3/2
now, we can simplify this expression, because the linear charge
density λ is a constant over the whole ring, the total charge Q di-
vided by total length 2πa must be λ,
Q
λ= −→ Q = λ2πa (42)
2πa
using this expression on Ex we get,
kQx
Ex = (43)
(x2 + a2 )3/2
since we already found Ey = 0 and Ez = 0, we conclude that the
electric field vector at any point P = x on the x axis of the ring of
charge is,

⃗ =< kQx
E , 0, 0 > (44)
(x2 + a2 )3/2

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5.1 Limit as x >> a
In the limit x >> a, where the point P is very far from the ring of
charge, we can approximate the denominator of our result as,

x 2 + a2 ≈ x 2 (45)
thus our result for the electric field vector is,

⃗ ≈< kQx , 0, 0 >

E (46)
(x2 )3/2

⃗ ≈< kQx , 0, 0 >

E (47)
x3

⃗ ≈< kQ , 0, 0 >
E (48)
x2
therefore the magnitude far away from the ring of charge is ap-
proximately,

⃗ ≈ kQ
|E| (49)
x2
which is what we would expect for a single point charge! There-
fore we see that far away from a point charge distribution such as a
ring of charge with total Q, the result for the electric field is approx-
imately the same as a single point charge Q, in this case located at
the origin.

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