Coulomb's Law and Electric Field Intensity

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the lecture on Coulomb's Law and Electric Field Intensity, including concepts like permittivity, charge distributions, and superposition.

Coulomb's Law

Describes the force between two point charges, stating it is directly proportional to the product of their magnitudes and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Permittivity of Free Space (ε₀)

A fundamental physical constant in Coulomb's Law, representing the ability of a vacuum to permit electric fields, measured in Farads per meter.

Electric Field Intensity (E)

A vector field defined as the force exerted by an initial charge per unit of a positive test charge (F/q), measured in Newtons per Coulomb (N/C) or Volts per meter (V/m).

Source (Electric Field)

A positive charge from which electric field lines radiate radially outward.

Sink (Electric Field)

A negative charge towards which electric field lines point, implying it absorbs the field.

Principle of Superposition (Electric Fields)

States that the total electric field at a point due to a collection of charges is the vector sum of the electric fields produced by each individual charge.

Continuous Charge Distribution

A distribution where charges are spread continuously over a volume, surface, or line, requiring integration methods (rather than summation) to calculate total charge or electric field.

Volume Charge Density (ρv)

The amount of charge per unit volume, expressed as the differential charge (dq) divided by the differential volume (dV).

Line Charge Density (ρL)

The amount of charge per unit length, expressed as the differential charge (dq) divided by the differential length (dL).

Differential Electric Field (dE)

The incremental electric field contribution from a small, infinitesimal charge (dq) at a given point, used in integrating for continuous charge distributions.