Unit I: Electrostatics

Electric charges and their conservation. Coulomb’s law – force between two point charges, forces between multiple charges; superposition principle, and continuous charge distribution.

Electric field, electric field due to a point charge, electric field lines; electric dipole, electric field due to a dipole; torque on a dipole in a uniform electric field.

Electric flux, statement of Gauss’s theorem and its applications to find field due to infinitely long straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet, and uniformly charged thin spherical shell (field inside and outside).

Electric potential, potential difference, electric potential due to a point charge, a dipole and system of charges; equipotential surfaces, the electrical potential energy of a system of two point charges, and electric dipoles in an electrostatic field.

Conductors and insulators, free charges, and bound charges inside a conductor. Dielectrics and electric polarization, capacitors and capacitance, the combination of capacitors in series and in parallel, the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectric medium between the plates, energy stored in a capacitor, Van de Graaff generator.