Gauss’s Law

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Chapter 30 Gauss’s Law

Gauss’s law is extension of Coulomb’s law to more general sitations. Coulomb’s law states force between two stationary charges. Adding the assumption of superposition principle for electric force, we extended its application to any stationary charge distribution. But, it is still limited to stationary charges.

Gauss’s law for electric field is more fundamental than Coulomb’s law. While in this chapter we will study Gauss’s law in the context of stationary charges, beware that Gauss’s law also applies to moving charges. In the case of moving charges, electric field at space points is time-dependent. Additionally, you also have magnetic field. We will not cover these complications in this chapter.

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