UNIT 2: METHODS OF CHARGING, COULOMB’S LAW AND SUPERPOSITION

Methods of Charging.
A body can be charged by following methods:
(1) By friction: In friction when two bodies are rubbed together, electrons are transferred from
one body to the other. As a result of this one body becomes positively charged while the other
negatively charged, e.g., when a glass rod is rubbed with silk, the rod becomes positively charged
while the silk negatively. However, ebonite on rubbing with wool becomes negatively charged
making the wool positively charged. Clouds also become charged by friction. In charging by
friction in accordance with conservation of charge, both positive and negative charges in equal
amounts appear simultaneously due to transfer of electrons from one body to the other.

-
+Q +Q –––
–Q– –– –– ––
+Q +
+ + + + +
– + + + + + +
– + + + + +
– – –
+ + + –
+ – + + – + – – –
+
– + +
+
– +
+
– – –
+ +
+
–– + + + –– + + –– –– –
–

(2) By electrostatic induction: If a charged body is brought near an uncharged body, the
charged body will attract opposite charge and repel similar charge present in the uncharged body.
As a result of this one side of neutral body (closer to charged body) becomes oppositely charged
while the other is similarly charged. This process is called electrostatic induction.

Note: Inducting body neither gains nor loses charge.

Induced charge can be lesser or equal to inducing charge (but never greater) and its maximum
value is given by
1
Q' = -Q [1- 𝐾 ] where Q is the inducing charge and K is the dielectric constant of the material of
the uncharged body. Dielectric constant of different media are shown below
Medium K

Vacuum / air 1
Water 80
Mica 6
Glass 5–10
Metal ∞
Dielectric constant of an insulator cannot be ∞
 For metals in electrostatics K = ∞ and so Q' = -Q
i.e. in metals induced charge is equal and opposite of inducing charge.
(3) Charging by conduction: Take two conductors, one charged and other uncharged. Bring
the conductors in contact with each other. The charge (whether -ve or +ve ) under its own
repulsion will spread over both the conductors. Thus the conductors will be charged with the
same sign. This is called charging by conduction (through contact).

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + +
+ + + + +

Uncharged Charged Bodies in contact Both are positively charged

Note: A truck carrying explosives has a metal chain touching the ground, to conduct away the
charge produced by friction.
COULOMB’S LAW
In the year 1786, Coulomb deduced the expression for the force between two stationary point
charges in vacuum or free space. Consider two point charges q1 and q2 at rest in vacuum, and
separated by a distance of r, as shown in Figure 1. According to Coulomb, the force on the point
charge q2 exerted by another point charge q1 is

where ^r12 is the unit vector directed from charge q1 to charge q2 and k is the proportionality
constant.
Important aspects of Coulomb’s law
(i) Coulomb's law states that the electrostatic force is directly proportional to the product of the
magnitude of the two point charges and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between the two point charges.

(ii) The force on the charge q2 exerted by the charge q1 always lies along the line joining the two
charges. ^r12 is the unit vector pointing from charge q1 to q2. It is shown in the Figure 1.2.
Likewise, the force on the charge q1 exerted by q2 is along -r^12 (i.e., in the direction opposite to
r^12).

(iii) In SI units, and its value is 9 × 109 N m2 C-2. Here ε is the permittivity of free space
or vacuum and the value of

(iv) The magnitude of the electrostatic force between two charges each of one coulomb and
separated by a distance of 1 m is calculated as follows:

This is a huge quantity, almost equivalent to the weight of one million ton. We never come across
1 coulomb of charge in practice. Most of the electrical phenomena in day-to-day life involve
electrical charges of the order of µC (micro coulomb) or nC (nano coulomb).
1 𝑞1 𝑞2
(v) In SI units, Coulomb’s law in vacuum takes the form 𝐹⃗12 = 4𝜋𝜀 𝑟⃗12 in a medium of
𝑟2
1 𝑞1 𝑞2
permittivity ε, the force between two point charges is given by𝐹⃗21 = 4𝜋𝜀 𝑟̂12 .
𝑟2

Since ε>εo, the force between two point charges in a medium other than vacuum is always less
than that in vacuum. We define the relative permittivity for a given medium as εr>ε/εo . For vacuum
or air, εr = 1 and ε for all other media εr> 1.
(vi) Coulomb’s law has same structure as Newton’s law of gravitation. Both are inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between the particles. The electrostatic force is directly
proportional to the product of the magnitude of two point charges and gravitational force is directly
proportional to the product of two masses. But there are some important differences between these
two laws.
· The gravitational force between two masses is always attractive but Coulomb force between
two charges can be attractive or repulsive, depending on the nature of charges.
· The value of the gravitational constant G = 6.626 × 10-11 N m2 kg-2. The value of the constant
k in Coulomb law is k = 9 × 109 N m2 C-2. Since k is much more greater than G, the electrostatic
force is always greater in magnitude than gravitational force for smaller size objects.
· The gravitational force between two masses is independent of the medium. For example, if
1 kg of two masses are kept in air or inside water, the gravitational force between two masses
remains the same. But the electrostatic force between the two charges depends on nature of the
medium in which the two charges are kept at rest.
· The gravitational force between two point masses is the same whether two masses are at rest
or in motion. If the charges are in motion, yet another force (Lorentz force) comes into play in
addition to Coulomb force.
(vii) The force on a charge q1 exerted by a point charge q2 is given by

Here ^r21 is the unit vector from charge q2 to q1.

But ^r21 = − ^r12 ,

Therefore, the electrostatic force obeys Newton’s third law.

(viii) The expression for Coulomb force is true only for point charges. But the point charge is an
ideal concept. However we can apply Coulomb’s law for two charged objects whose sizes are very
much smaller than the distance between them. In fact, Coulomb discovered his law by considering
the charged spheres in the torsion balance as point charges. The distance between the two charged
spheres is much greater than the radii of the spheres.
EXAMPLE 1
Consider two point charges q1 and q2 at rest as shown in the figure.
They are separated by a distance of 1m. Calculate the force experienced by the two charges for the
following cases:
(a) q1 = +2μC and q2 = +3μC
(b) q1 = +2μC and q2 = -3μC
(c) q1= +2μC and q2 = -3μC kept in water (εr = 80)
Solution
EXAMPLE 2
Calculate the electrostatic force and gravitational force between the proton and the electron in a
hydrogen atom. They are separated by a distance of 5.3 × 10-11 m. The magnitude of charges on
the electron and proton are 1.6 × 10-19 C. Mass of the electron is me = 9.1 × 10-31 kg and mass of
proton is mp = 1.6 × 10-27 kg.
Solution
The proton and the electron attract each other. The magnitude of the electrostatic force between
these two particles is given by

The gravitational force between the proton and the electron is attractive. The magnitude of the
gravitational force between these particles is
The electrostatic force between a proton and an electron is enormously greater than the
gravitational force between them. Thus the gravitational force is negligible when compared with
the electrostatic force in many situations such as for small size objects and in the atomic domain.
This is the reason why a charged comb attracts an uncharged piece of paper with greater force
even though the piece of paper is attracted downward by the Earth.
Superposition principle
Coulomb’s law explains the interaction between two point charges. If there are more than two
charges, the force on one charge due to all the other charges needs to be calculated. Coulomb’s
law alone does not give the answer. The superposition principle explains the interaction between
multiple charges.
According to this superposition principle, the total force acting on a given charge is equal to
the vector sum of forces exerted on it by all the other charges.
Consider a system of n charges, namely q1, q2, q3 ….qn. The force on q1 exerted by the charge q2

Here ^r21 is the unit vector from q2 to q1 along the line joining the two charges and r21 is the
distance between the charges q1 and q2. The electrostatic force between two charges is not affected
by the presence of other charges in the neighbourhood.
The force on q1 exerted by the charge q3 is

By continuing this, the total force acting on the charge q1 due to all other charges is given by
EXAMPLE 3
Consider four equal charges q1, q2, q3 and q4 = q = +1μC located at four different points on a circle
of radius 1m, as shown in the figure. Calculate the total force acting on the charge q1 due to all
the other charges.

Solution
According to the superposition principle, the total electrostatic force on charge q1 is the vector
sum of the forces due to the other charges,

The following diagram shows the direction of each force on the charge q1.

The charges q2 and q4 are equi-distant from q1. As a result the strengths (magnitude) of the
forces and are the same even though their directions are different. Therefore the vectors
representing these two forces are drawn with equal lengths. But the charge q3 is located farther
compared to q2 and q4. Since the strength of the electrostatic force decreases as distance increases,

the strength of the force is lesser than that of forces and . Hence the vector
representing the force is drawn with smaller length compared to that for forces and

From the figure, the angle θ = 45º. In terms of the components, we have

Since F12 = F14, the jth component is zero.

Hence we have

substituting the values in the above equation,

The resultant force is along the positive x axis.