Mechanical Universe

Electric Field: Michael Faraday's vision of lines of constant force in space laid the foundation for the modern idea of the field of force. Electric fields of static charges; Gauss' law and the conservation of flux.

Learning Objectives

Be able to draw lines of force for simple charge systems and to obtain information about the direction and strength of an electric field from such a diagram.
Know how to calculate the electric field for point charges and simple continuous distributions of charge.
Know the definition of flux and l/r² law.
Be able to state Gauss' law and use it to find the electric field produced by various symmetrical charge distributions.
Know that a spherically symmetric shell charge distribution produces zero electric field inside the shell and produces a field outside the shell the same as that of a point charge at the center of the shell.
Be able to explain why the electric field inside a conductor is zero.