Category: Dielectric

A Few Facts On Coulomb’s Law

A few words on the modern interpretation of Coulomb’s Law in terms of Fields Theory.

At the base of all the electromagnetism theory lays Coulomb’s Law, which describes why and how charges move in a medium, whether the medium is a conductor or the void.

Electrical and Electronics engineers are therefore supposed to be very familiar with this law. Let’s spend some time to provide a few important facts of the law. For that, we have to go back to the concept of ‘field’.

In modern physics, we usually tend to identify the effect of an entity over another entity with the name of field. Mathematically speaking, a field is a 3-dimensional matrix that assigns a specific value, usually a vector, to each point in the observed space.

Each time we put in that space an object capable of reacting with the field, we end up with a force applied to that object that is the product of the field in that point and the measurable value of that object.

So, in the case of charges, a single charge creates a field in the surrounding space. When we put in that space a second charge, the new charge will be subject to a force that is the product of the charge itself and the value of the field in that point in space.

Because charges can repel or attract, depending on their positive or negative sign, the field itself is directional, and therefore represented with vectors..

Here is a picture representing a field generated by a positive charge:

And here is a picture representing a field generated by a negative charge:

If the charge creating the field is Q, then the field can be represented by the following equation:

where E is the value of the field, actually the module of the field vector, and r is the distance from the charge of a point in space where the field is calculated. The constant ε0 is called “dielectric constant” and, in this formula, it assumes that the charge is located in the void or in thin air. An adjustment to the constant needs to be made when the medium is different.

We call this field an Electrostatic field, hence the E, because the charge that generates it does not move, it is static.

The force on a charge q put in the field can be calculated as:

And, since E is actually a vector, F is therefore also a vector.

If we want to represent this in actual vector format, we can write it as:

where

is the position vector of the charge q with respect to the charge Q. This is what is called Coulomb’s Law.

You can see that if the charges are both positive or both negative, the vector F is oriented such that the charge q moves away from the charge Q and, vice versa, when the charges have opposite sign, F is oriented toward Q.

That is exactly what we expected: charges of the same sign repel each other and charges of opposite sign attract each other.

As a further example, here is the graphical representation of an electrostatic field generated by two charges of opposite sign:

… and finally an electrostatic field generated by two charges of the same sign:

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Capacitors – Part 1

A brief introduction to capacitors: what they are, how they are made, and their basic functionality.

capacitorsA capacitor is an electric device capable of storing energy in the form of electric charges (electric field).

In the most simple form, a capacitor is made of two conductive plates facing each other and an insulator in between, which is normally called a dielectric. The two plates are then attached to wires, that are used to connect the capacitor in an electric circuit.

capacitor

The schematic diagram reflects exactly the physical nature of the device:

schematic_symbol

When a capacitor is connected to a power supply, like a battery, electrons leave the plate that is connected to the positive side of the battery, while the same amount of electrons is pushed into the plate connected to the negative side of the battery. Once the difference of charges at the plates of the capacitor is enough to establish a voltage on the capacitor that is identical to the battery, electrons stop moving around the circuit and an equilibrium is reached.

capacitor_and_battery

At this point, if the connection with the battery is severed, the capacitor will retain the amount of charges on its plates: extra charges on the negative plate and defect of charges on the positive plate. If we connect a load to the capacitor, for example a resistor, charges will start moving in the circuit pushed by the voltage at the wires, called electrodes, of the capacitor. So, electrons will leave the negative plate moving toward the load, and an equal amount of electrons will move from the load into the positive plate of the capacitor. The movement of the electrons causes the voltage at the plates of the capacitor to lower until, when an equilibrium of charged is reached, the voltage will be zero and the current will stop flowing through the circuit. At this point all the energy that was stored in the capacitor has been used and the capacitor is said to be discharged.

capacitor_and_load

Both during charge and discharge, the ratio between the amount of charge stored on the capacitor and its voltage remains constant. This can be verified experimentally. We define this constant as the capacitance of the capacitor:

C = Q / V

which is measured in Farad. However, since the Farad is a very big unit, capacitors are normally measured in fractions of Farad, like microFarad (μF, 1 millionth of a Farad)), nanoFarad (nF, one billionth of a Farad), and picoFarad (pF, one trillionth of Farad).

Using the above formula, and calculating the work done to move the charges in and out of the capacitor with the help of some calculus, we can determine the energy stored in a capacitor as:

energy

And, finally, the actual capacitance can also be determined by the physical parameters of the capacitor itself. We can see experimentally that the capacitance is directly proportional to the area of the plates of the capacitor, it is inversely proportional to the distance between the plates, and depends on the type of dielectric in between the plates. The type of dielectric is identified in the formula by the Greek letter ε (epsilon). Each type of dielectric has its own value of ε (permittivity), which is the product of the vacuum permittivity and the relative permittivity of the material.

capacitance

For more information on this subject, please look also to the corresponding video on my YouTube channel.

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