Point Charge

This page is all about the Electric Field due to a Point Charge.

Electric Field

A Work In Progress by Brandon Weiner: bweiner6

A Mathematical Model of Electric Field due to Point Charge

The Electric Field of a Point Charge can be found by the formula:

[math]\displaystyle{ \vec E=\frac{1}{4 \pi \epsilon_0 } \frac{q}{r^2} \hat r,\text{where } \frac{1}{4 \pi \epsilon_0 } \text{is approximately } 9*10^{9} \text{, q is the charge of the particle, r is the magnitude of the distance between the point charge and the observation point, and } }[/math] [math]\displaystyle{ \hat r \text { is the direction of the distance from the point charge to the observation point.} }[/math]

A Computational Model

How do we visualize or predict using this topic. Consider embedding some vpython code here Teach hands-on with GlowScript

<verbatim> <iframe src="https://trinket.io/embed/glowscript/cf036f65f7?start=result" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </verbatim>

Examples

Be sure to show all steps in your solution and include diagrams whenever possible

Simple

Problem 1: There is a proton at <1,2,3>. Calculate the electric field at <2,-1,3>.

Step 1: Find [math]\displaystyle{ \hat r }[/math]

Find [math]\displaystyle{ \vec r_{obs} - \vec r_{proton} (\lt 2,-1,3\gt - \lt 1,2,3\gt = \lt 1,-3,0\gt ) }[/math]

Calculate the magnitude of r. ([math]\displaystyle{ \sqrt{1^2+(-3)^2+0^2}=\sqrt{10} }[/math]

From r, find the unit vector [math]\displaystyle{ \hat{r}. }[/math] [math]\displaystyle{ \lt \frac{1}{\sqrt{10}},\frac{-3}{\sqrt{10}},\frac{0}{\sqrt{10}}\gt }[/math]

Step 2: Find the magnitude of the Electric Field

[math]\displaystyle{ E= \frac{1}{4 \pi \epsilon_0 } \frac{q}{r^2} = \frac{1}{4 \pi \epsilon_0 } \frac{1.6 * (10^{-19})}{10} }[/math]

Step 3: Multiply the magnitude by [math]\displaystyle{ \hat{r} }[/math] to find the Electric Field

Connectedness

1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?
2. How is it connected to your major?
3. Is there an interesting industrial application?

History

Put this idea in historical context. Give the reader the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

See also

Are there related topics or categories in this wiki resource for the curious reader to explore? How does this topic fit into that context?

Further reading

Books, Articles or other print media on this topic

External links

Internet resources on this topic

References

This section contains the the references you used while writing this page