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[LECS/EM-02003] Gauss Law

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  • The flux of electric field through a surface in defined as a surface integral and the statement of Gauss law is given.
  • A few examples of computing the electric field using Gauss law and symmetry of the problem are discussed.
  • A simple and intuitive proof of Gauss law is given following Feynman lectures. The task of proving Gauss law for arbitrary charge distribution is reduced to the problem proving the Gauss law for a single point charge by appealing to the superposition principle.

[NOTES/EM-02005]-Flux of $\bar{E}$ and Using Gauss law

The flux of electric field is defined and As a simple example, the flux of the electric field due to a point charge at the center of a sphere is explicitly computed. Other cases are briefly mentioned an statement of Gauss law is given.

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[NOTES/EM-02004]-Applications of Gauss Law

Gauss law is applied to compute the electric field for several systems, see the Table of Contents for details. The symmetry of the problem is used in a nontrivial manner to arrive at the answers for the electric field.

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[NOTES/EM-02006]-Proof of Gauss Law

The Gauss law of electrostatics follows from the Coulomb’s law for a point charge and superposition principle. The proof given here follows Feynman’s lectures. It makes use of two important features of the electric field due to a point charge. These are
(i) the magnitude of the field obeying the inverse square law, and
(ii) radial direction of the electric field of a point charge. The above two properties are essential to the proof. Gauss law will not hold for hypothetical field, not having both the properties.

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