Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Coulomb's Laws Of Electrostatics

Coulomb's Laws Of Electrostatics :

First Law : Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. In other words, bodies having same charges repel each other and bodies oppositely charged attract each other.

The first law tells only about the nature of force i.e., repulsive or attractive. It does not tell about the magnitude of force. The magnitude of the force between two charged bodies is given by the second law.

Second Law : The force of attraction or repulsion between two charges is directly proportional to the product of magnitude of the two charges and inversely proportional to the square of distance between them.

If two point charges Q1 and Q2 have distance d between them, then force  F between the charges can be mathematically expressed as :








Coulombs Law

                             F = K × Q1Q2/d2

Where K is a constant of proportionality and its value depends upon the medium in which the charges are placed and the system of units used. In SI units force is measured in newton, charge in coulomb, distance in meter and the value of K is given as:
                 
                             K = 1/4πϵoϵr           (in S.I. system)
where   
ϵ= Absolute Permittivity of vacuum or prematurity of free space
ϵr = Relative Permittivity of the medium w.r.t. vacuum in which the charges are placed.
The value of  ϵo  = 8.854 x 10-12  farad/metre and the value of ϵr is different for different media, for air ϵr = 1. The value of 1/4πϵo = 9 x 109


                                          F = K × Q1Q2/d2
                                       F = (1/4πϵoϵr)  × Q1Q2/d2
                                     F = Q1Q2/4πϵoϵrd2  (in N)

Units.   In the formula,     F = Q1Q2/4πϵoϵrd 
F is measured in newton, Q1,Q2 in coulomb, d in metre and  ϵo in farad/metre.

Unit Charge :

(i) S.I.System : By unit charge, we mean one coulomb charge. By coulomb's second law,

                       F = Q1Q2/4πϵoϵrd2  newton
                      F =  9 x 109   newton 
and          Q1Q2 = Q
                      ϵr = 1
                      ϵ= 8.854 x 10-12 
                      d = 1m
Put everything in above relation,
             x 109 =  ( Q ×  Q ) / 4π ×  8.854 x 10-12 ×1 ×1
                 Q2   =   ± 1 coulomb
Hence unit charge or one coulomb charge in S.I.system can be defined as:-

A unit charge or One coulomb is that much charge which when placed at a distance of one meter from an equal and similar charge in air, is repelled with a force of 9 x 10newton from it. 


(ii) In C.G.S System : Unit of charge is stat coulomb

                                1 coulomb =  3 x 109  stat coulomb



Absolute and Relative permitivity :

Permittivity is the property of particular medium which affects the magnitude of the force existing between two point charges. 

As discussed above, the greater the value of the permittivity of the medium placed between the two charged bodies the lesser the value of force existing between them. 


Every medium is supposed to possess two permittivities :

(i)  Absolute permittivity (ϵo) and
(ii) Relative permittivity  (ϵr).


The absolute permittivity of air or vacuum is minimum and its value is  8.854 10-12  F/m whereas the value of absolute or (actual) permittivity ϵ of all other insulating medium is more than ϵo. 


 The ratio of these two permittivities i.e., absolute permittivity of the insulating medium to the absolute permittivity of the air  or vacuum is known as relative permittivity of that medium and is denoted by ϵr.


i.e.,                    ϵr = ϵ/ϵo
                                         ϵ  = ϵoϵr.


Courtesy:DAE
R.A.Banwat

2 comments:

  1. How is this not known as a fundamental force, along with the magnetic force, instead of the so- called "electromagnetic force" which is actually a wave or a photon?

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  2. Accordig to Maxwell's equations, electric and magnetic fields are not independent upon each other. If one field changes, they come hand in hand. The maxwell's equations provdide a summarized comprehension of these two, but they can also be used to describe the fields when one field is constant. So to answer your question, it is simpler, to take magnetic and electric fields and forces from these together.

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