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    Handout 01 316 1207 PDF

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    Ian Carlsen
    This document discusses Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems used to model space. It introduces Coulomb's law for the force between two point charges and defines the electric field as the limit of the force per unit test charge as the test charge approaches zero. Vector fields are described as functions that take spatial positions and time as inputs and output mathematical quantities like real numbers or vectors. Integrals are defined conceptually with omitted technical details to focus on conceptual understanding.

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    Handout 01 316 1207 PDF

    Uploaded by

    Ian Carlsen
    51 views5 pages
    This document discusses Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems used to model space. It introduces Coulomb's law for the force between two point charges and defines the electric field as the limit of the force per unit test charge as the test charge approaches zero. Vector fields are described as functions that take spatial positions and time as inputs and output mathematical quantities like real numbers or vectors. Integrals are defined conceptually with omitted technical details to focus on conceptual understanding.

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    This document discusses Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems used to model space. It introduces Coulomb's law for the force between two point charges and defines the electric field as the limit of the force per unit test charge as the test charge approaches zero. Vector fields are described as functions that take spatial positions and time as inputs and output mathematical quantities like real numbers or vectors. Integrals are defined conceptually with omitted technical details to focus on conceptual understanding.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    51 views5 pages

    Handout 01 316 1207 PDF

    Uploaded by

    Ian Carlsen
    This document discusses Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems used to model space. It introduces Coulomb's law for the force between two point charges and defines the electric field as the limit of the force per unit test charge as the test charge approaches zero. Vector fields are described as functions that take spatial positions and time as inputs and output mathematical quantities like real numbers or vectors. Integrals are defined conceptually with omitted technical details to focus on conceptual understanding.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 5

    Ensc 316-1207

    Fall 2020

    L01 The Electric Field L01


    Cartesian Coordinate Systems:
    Classical theories of physics model space using a mathematical
    structure called Euclidean 3-space, E3
    At each point in space, we construct three Unit Vectors that are
    tangent to the coordinate lines. ( xˆ , yˆ , zˆ )
    (notice that this choice of vectors is independent of position)

    • If the values of the THREE coordinates are three fixed constants then a unique position is specified. (0D – point)

    • If the value of the ONE coordinate is a fixed constant then a surface is spanned by the remaining two (free) variable
    coordinates. (2D – surface)
    • If the values of the TWO coordinates are constant then a 1D curve is formed from the intersection of the two coordinate
    surfaces. This is called a coordinate curve. as it spanned by the remaining (free) variable coordinate.

    Cylindrical Coordinate Systems:


    x =  cos()   (0, )  = x 2 + y2
    y =  sin()  [0, 2) y
     = arctan  
    z=z z  (−, ) x
    z=z
    Ensc 316-1207
    Fall 2020

    L01 The Electric Field L01


    Spherical Coordinate Systems:
    r = x 2 + y2 + z2
    x = r sin() cos() r  (0, )
     x 2 + y2 
    y = r sin() sin()   (0, )  = arctan  
     z 
    z = r cos()   [0, 2)  
    y
     = arctan  
    x

    Coulomb’s Law:  QQ 
    F12 =  k 1 2 2  rˆ12 k = 8.9876 Nm 2 /C 2
     r12  1
     0 = 8.8542 pF/m
    read the indices “pointing from 1 towards 2” 4k

    r12 r12 = r 2 − r1 rˆ12 r12


    r12 r 2 − r1 r12
         
    r12

    F12 = k
    
    Q1Q2 
    2 
     r12

    = k
    
    Q1Q2 
    r =  k
    3  12
    Q1Q2 
    3  (r − r )
    2 1


    r12
     
    r12  

    r 2 − r1 

    Ensc 316-1207
    Fall 2020

    L01 The Electric Field L01


    The Electric Field:
    Consider a collection of point charges or a “continuous charge distribution” that are glued in place so that they
    cannot move, Plot the force on a unit charge at every position.
    • What if the test charge is doubled? tripled? ...
    We scale the force field per unit (test) charge.
    • Divide the force by the test charge to create a normalized force field.
    If we remove the glue, then it is possible that the test charge disturbs the positions of the source charges.
    So ... we use an infinitesimally small test charge.
    We plot the normalized force field for test charges that become increasingly small.
    The true electric field is the normalized force field in the limit as the test charge becomes zero.

     QQ  F1t
    F1t =  k 1 2 t  rˆ1t E1t = lim
    Q t →0
     r1t  Qt

    Natural Philosophy & Mathematics:


    Faraday’s idea seems like a mathematical trick.
    It allows use to solve big problems by breaking up the problem into two parts.
    • pretend that some of the charges are sources that create an intermediate field.
    • solve the final problem of motion of the remaining charges in the presence of the field.
    In reality, Faraday’s idea is NOT a mathematical trick.
    The intermediate field has objective reality, in of itself, and is thus justifiably a subject for study in the natural
    philosophy.
    Ensc 316-1207
    Fall 2020

    L01 The Electric Field L01


    Vector Fields: In physics, a field is simply a function.
    The input to the function are coordinates that represent spatial position and time.
    The output of the function is some mathematical quantity, such as
    a real number, a complex number, a real vector, a 3X3 square matrix etc.

    For example, real scalar field is a function, f: (3x)


    This mathematical object can be used by a physicist to describe the temperature in a room.
    For this course we will consider the behaviour of static fields. We should be careful when we use the term “constant”.
    • We use the word static to imply time independence and

    • We use the word uniform or homogeneous to imply spatial independence.

    Consider taking a photograph of the fluid that records the instantaneous position and instantaneous velocity
    of all parts of the fluid.
    • The velocity vectors (of one photograph) form a static vector field.
    • The collection of all photographs would be a dynamic vector field.
    Integrals: The specification of an integral contains three important pieces.

     ( integrand ) ( differential )
    ( domain )

    If we use this notation to convey conceptual information, we can be imprecise when we write the symbols.
    • We omit the technical details so that the complexity does not obscure the conceptual point.
    • We assume that the reader understands the context of the symbols and can fill in the details when performing an
    actual calculation.

    For example,
    • look at the first definition of Coulomb’s Law. It was for conceptual understanding.

    • look what happened when I inserted the details needed for calculation.
    Ensc 316-1207
    Fall 2020

    L01 The Electric Field L01


    Extra Notes:

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