Coulomb’s law and electric field

Before knowing who was the first to come up with the idea of finding an electron in an orbital and how to find them, one must first understand what orbitals are. An orbital is an energy level into which electrons can arrange themselves.  Electrons have a negative charge because they tend to occupy the available […]

Electrons were discovered as a result of a study of cathode rays by JJ Thomson. It carries a negative charge ( 1.6 X 10-19 C). The name electricity is taken from the Greek word electron, meaning amber. Many pairs of materials which on rubbing could attract light objects like straw, pith balls, and bits of

An electric field is said to be a property that exists in the space where any charge is present. Another term that can be used to describe electric fields is force per unit charge. The formula to calculate the electric field is: E=F/Q where, F is considered to be the electrostatic force and Q be

When matter is held in an electric or magnetic field, it has a physical property called electric charge that governs it to experience a force. An electric charge is created by an electric field, whereas moving electric charges create a magnetic field. The electromagnetic force is created by the interactions of electric and magnetic fields.

Every charge produces its own electric field, and other charges experience the electric force in the vicinity of that charge. This force could be either attractive or repulsive, depending on the nature of the charges. We cannot ‘see’ electric fields with our naked eyes. These electric fields can be pictorially represented by the ‘electric lines

Electric flux is the measure of number of electric field lines passing through a given area. The electric flux is determined by the number of electric field lines travelling through a virtual surface.  It’s worth noting that while charges outside the closed surface have no effect on the electric flux, charges outside the closed surface

What is a Point Charge? A point charge is an entity or physical object with a certain imbalance in the number of electrons and protons, which gives it a positive or negative charge.  Depending upon the positive or negative charge induced on the point object, electric field lines will form. These lines will generate an

When we talk about the basic concepts of electric field lines, they originate from bodies that contain electrical charges. They are fine lines or, to be precise, visualized lines that can trace the line of action and the force generated in any electrical field.  A field line is always drawn tangentially from any point in

In electrostatics, when there are two charges in space, an electric force acts between them which is directly proportional to the two charges’ magnitude and inversely proportional to the square of their distance. This is called Coulomb’s law of electrostatics. Force is a vector quantity and its formula is presented: F = (kq₁q₂/r²) r̂ Where 

Gauss’s Law is a fundamental law of electrostatics that helps to explain electric fields. It states that “the net electric field at any point is proportional to the total charge enclosed by a closed surface.”  We can explain Gauss’s Law in detail with the following example: Imagine an electric wire with an infinite length. The