In this article, students will get revision notes on CBSE

Class 12 Physics, Chapter 1: Electric Charges and Fields.

These notes are very useful for revision purposes before
the exam.

The complete chapter is divided into several parts and this

is the Part - I.

Electrostatics
Electrostatics deals with the study of forces, fields and
potentials arising from static charges. The name electricity
is coined from the Greek word elektron meaning amber.

Important facts about Electric Charges

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The name electricity is coined from the Greek word

elektron meaning amber.

There are two kinds of charges.

By convention, the charge on electron is considered as
negative & the charge on proton is considered as positive.

If we say that a body is charged, it means body have

excess or deficit of electrons.
A body having negative charge implies that body has
excess of electrons. A body having positive charge implies
that body is deficient of electrons.

In solids, some of the electrons, being less tightly bound in

the atom, are the charges which are transferred from one
body to the other. A body can thus be charged positively
by losing some of its electrons. Similarly, a body can be
charged negatively by gaining electrons.

The SI unit of electric charge is coulomb. The c.g.s. unit of

charge is stat coulomb.

Gold - Leaf Electroscope

It is a device used to detect the nature and amount of

electric charge present in a charged body.

It consists of a vertical metal rod housed in a box, with two

thin gold leaves attached to its bottom end. When a
charged object touches the metal knob at the top of the
rod, charge flows on to the leaves and they diverge. The
degree of divergance is an indicator of the amount of
charge.

Basic Properties of Electric Charges

Additivity of Charges:
If a system contains two point chargesq1 andq2, the total
charge of the system is obtained simply by adding
algebraicallyq1 andq2 , i.e., charges add up like real
numbers or they are scalars like the mass of a body.
If a system containsnchargesq1,q2,q3, …,qn, then the total
charge of the system isq1 +q2 +q3 + … +qn.
Charge is conserved:
Within an isolated system consisting of many charged
bodies, due to interactions among the bodies, charges may
get redistributed but it is found that the total charge of the
isolated system is always conserved.

Quantisation of charge
Experimentally it is established that all free charges are
integral multiples of a basic unit of charge denoted bye.
Thus chargeqon a body is always given byq=ne, herenis any
integer, positive or negative. This basic unit of charge is
the charge that an electron or proton carries. By
convention, the charge on an electron is taken to be
negative; therefore charge on an electron is written as –
eand that on a proton as +e. (e= 1.602192 × 10 C)
–19

Methods of Charging
A body can be charged by friction, induction and
conduction.

Charging by Friction:
When certain insulators are rubbed with cloth or fur, they
become electrically charged due to the transfer or charge
or electrons. As the two objects are rubbed together, one
object loses electrons while the other gains electrons.

There is a transfer of electrons from one object to the

other. The object that gains electrons becomes negatively
charged, while the object that loses electrons has an
excess of positive charge. Hence it is positively charged.
The transfer of charge is due to the contact between the
materials, and the amount of charge transferred depends
on the nature of these materials.

Charging by Induction:
Induction is the process by which a uncharged body is
charged by using a charged body without actual contact
between them or losing its own
charge.
If a charged body is brought near a neutral body, the
charged body attracts opposite charge and repels similar
charge present on the
neutral body.
Afterwards, the neutral body is earthed and the like charge
is neutralised by the flow of charge from earth leaving
unlike charge on
the body. Now the earthing and the charging body are
removed leaving the initially neutral body charged.
Charging by Conduction:
In the process of charging by conduction, direct contact of
charged and uncharged body is involved and both objects
acquire the same kind of charge. If a negative object is
used to charge a neutral object, then both objects become
charged negatively and vice versa.

Coulomb's law
According to this law "The magnitude of the electric force
between two static point charges, in vacuum, is directly
proportional to the product of the magnitude of the two
charges and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance between them and acts along the straight line
joining the two charges".

The magnitude of Coulomb's law is given by the

expression:

Where,Fis the force between two point charges, q1 andq2 are

magnitude of charges,ris the distance between these
charges.
Some facts about Coulomb’s law:
• Coulomb's law should be used for point charges in
vacuum at rest. It is not valid for charges in motion.
• The electrostatics force acts along the line joining the
two charges. It obeys Newton's third law of motion.

• Coulomb's force is not affected by the presence of other

charges in the neighborhood; hence, the principle of
superposition is valid.

• Force between like charges is repulsive and between

unlike charges attractive.

Coulomb’s law in vector form:

Superposition Principle:

Important revision notes of Chapter 2 - Electrostatic

Potential and Capacitance are available in this article.
Important concepts related to electrostatic potential are
already covered in part I, in part II we will mainly focus
on concepts related to dielectric and electric capacitance.
• Dielectrics

• Types of dielectrics
• Dielectric Polarization

• Capacitor

• Capacitance of a Capacitor

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Type Questions with Solutions
• Capacitance of an Isolated Conducting Sphere

• Parallel Plate Capacitor and Its Capacitance

• Combination of Capacitors

• Effect of Conductors in Capacitor

• Effect of Dielectrics in Capacitor

• Energy Stored in Capacitor

• Total Energy of the combination of capacitors

• Energy Density or Energy per Unit Volume

• Common Potential of charge capacitors

• Energy dissipated when two charged capacitors are

connected

Dielectrics:
Dielectrics are non-conducting substances. In contrast to
conductors, they have no (or negligible number of) charge
carriers.

Types of dielectrics:
Dielectrics are of two types:

(i) Non-Polar Dielectrics: When the centre of positive

charge coincides with the centre of negative charge in a
molecule, e.g., Nitrogen, Oxygen, CO2 etc.
(ii) Polar Dielectrics: When the centre of positive and
negative charges do not coincide because of the
asymmetric shape of the molecules, e.g., NH3, HCl etc.
CBSE Class 12 Physics Syllabus 2017
Dielectric Polarization:
In a dielectric, this free movement of charges is not
possible. It turns out that the external field induces dipole
moment by stretching or re-orienting molecules of the
dielectric. The collective effect of all the molecular dipole
moments is net charges on the surface of the dielectric
which produce a field that opposes the external field.
Unlike in a conductor, however, the opposing field so
induced does not exactly cancel the external field. It only
reduces it. The extent of the effect depends on the nature
of the dielectric.

Image Source: NCERT Book

Capacitor:
It is an arrangement of primarily two conductors for
storing large amount of electric charge.

Capacitance of a Capacitor:
Capacitance (C) of a capacitor is defined as ratio of charge
(Q) given to the potential difference (V) applied across the
conductors, i.e., C = Q/V.

The SI unit of capacitance is farad (F).

NCERT Exemplar Class 12 Physics

Capacitance of an Isolated Conducting Sphere:
The capacitance (C) of an isolated conducting sphere of
radius (r) is given by C = 4 π ∈or.
Parallel Plate Capacitor and Its Capacitance:
A parallel plate capacitor consists of two large plane
parallel conducting plates separated by a small
distance. The two plates have chargesQand –Q.
Image Source: NCERT Book

Parallel plate capacitor is an arrangement of two large

metal plates of areaAeach kept parallel to each other at a
distancedapart. If the space between the plates is vaccum
(or air) then the capacitance of such an arrangement is
given by,

Combination of Capacitors
We can combine several capacitors of capacitance C1, C2,…,
Cn to obtain a system with some effective capacitance C.
The effective capacitance depends on the way the
individual capacitors are combined. Two simple possible
ways are:
Capacitors in Series:

In series arrangement the magnitudeQof charge on each

plate is same
Capacitors in Parallel

In parallel arrangement the potential difference across the

each capacitor will remain same.

CEquivalent=C1 +C2 +C3 . . . +Cn

CBSE Class 12th Physics Notes: Ray Optics & Optical
Instruments
Effect of Conductors in Capacitor
When a parallel plate capacitor is partially filled with a
metallic slab of thicknesst<d, its capacitance will be:

Effect of Dielectrics in Capacitor

When a dielectric slab of dielectric constantKhaving
thicknesst<dis placed between the plates of parallel plate
capacitor.
The capacitance of the capacitor will be,

Energy Stored in Capacitor

Energy stored (U) in capacitor (C) charged to a potential
differenceVis given as,
Total Energy of the combination of capacitor:
Series combination:

Parallel combination:

Energy Density or Energy per Unit Volume:

The energy density or energy stored per unit volume of a
charged capacitor is given by

Common Potential of charged capacitors

IfC1andC2 are capacitors charged to potentials V1 and
V2 respectively. These capacitors are connected by a
conducting wire, charges flow from higher potential to
lower potential. This flow of charge will continue till their
potentials become equal. There will no charge is lost in
sharing and their common potential is given by,

Energy dissipated when two charged capacitors are

connected
IfU1 is the total energy before sharing of charges andU2 is
total energy after sharing of charges then,

CBSE Class 12th Physics Notes: Electrostatics

Potential and Capacitance (Part - I)
Chapter-wise revision notes on Chapter-4: Moving Charges and
Magnetism of NCERT class 12 Physics textbook is available here.

Moving Charges and Magnetism is one of the important chapters of CBSE

class 12 Physics. So, students must prepare this chapter thoroughly. The
notes provided here will be very helpful for the students who are going to
appear in CBSE class 12 Physics board exam 2017. The notes of this
chapter are available in several parts. This is part I of the chapter.

The topics covered in this part are given below:

• Oersted’ Experiment

• Magnetic Field

• Moving Charge & Magnetic Field

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 CBSE Class 9 Science Exam 2020: Important Long Answer Type Questions
with Solutions
• Lorentz Force

• Magnetic force on a current-carrying conductor

• Motion of a charged particle in a Magnetic Field

• Motion of a charge in Combined Electric and Magnetic Fields

• Cyclotron

Oersted’ Experiment
During a lecture demonstration in 1820, the Danish physicist Hans
Christian Oersted noticed that a current in a straight wire caused a
noticeable deflection in a nearby magnetic compass needle. He further
investigated this phenomenon and confirmed the phenomenon of magnetic
field around current carrying conductor.

CBSE Class 12 Physics Syllabus: 2017

Magnetic Field
It is the space around a magnet or current carrying conductor around
which magnetic effects can be experienced. It is a vector quantity and its
SI unit is tesla (T) or Wbm‒2.
Moving Charge & Magnetic Field
A charge can produce magnetic field if it is in motion. Magnetic field can
also interact with a moving charge.

Lorentz Force
Assume a point chargeq(moving with a velocity v and, located at r at a
given timet) in presence of both the electric field E (r) and the magnetic
field B (r). The force on an electric chargeqdue to both of them is given
by,
F =q[E (r) + v × B (r)] ≡ FElectric + FMagnetic
Careful analysis of this expression shows that:

• Lorentz Force depends onq, v and B (charge of the particle, the

velocity and the magnetic field). Force on a negative charge is opposite to
that on a positive charge.
• The magnetic forceq[v × B] includes a vector product of velocity &
magnetic field. Vector product makes the force due to magnetic field
become zero if velocity and magnetic field are parallel or anti-parallel. The
force acts in a (sideways) direction perpendicular to both the velocity and
the magnetic field. Its direction is given by the screw rule or right hand
rule for vector (or cross) product as shown in figure given below

Image Source: NCERT Books

• The magnetic force is zero if charge is not moving (as then |v|= 0).
Only a moving charge feels the magnetic force

F =q[v × B] =q|v||B| sin θ ň, where θ is angle between v and B.

CBSE Class 12th Physics Notes: Wave Optics
Magnetic force on a current-carrying conductor
Magnetic force on a conductor of lengthlcarrying a currentIplaced in a
uniform magnetic fieldBis given by
F=I(l×B) or |F| =I|l||B| sin θ.
The direction of F is perpendicular to both l and B and can be obtained
with the help of Fleming’s Left hand rule.

Motion of a charged particle in Magnetic Field

A force on a particle does work if the force has a component along (or
opposed to) the direction of motion of the particle.

In the case of motion of a charge in a magnetic field, the magnetic force is

perpendicular to the velocity of the particle. So no work is done and no
change in the magnitude of the velocity is produced (though the direction
of momentum may be changed).

Generally two types of cases are possible:

Case 1st: When v is perpendicular to B
The perpendicular force,qv × B, acts as a centripetal force and produces a
circular motion perpendicular to the magnetic field. The particle will
describe a circle if v and B are perpendicular to each other.

Image Source: NCERT Books

In this case, radius described by charge particle is given by,r=m v/q B
Ifωis the angular frequency, thenω= 2πv=q B / m, where,vis frequency of
rotation
The time taken for one revolution is T= 2π/ω ≡ 1/ν.

Case 2nd: When v is making an angle with B other than 0o

In this case, velocity has a component along B, this component remains
unchanged as the motion along the magnetic field will not be affected by
the magnetic field. The motion in a plane perpendicular to B is as before a
circular one, thereby producing a helical motion
Image Source: NCERT Books
The distance moved along the magnetic field in one rotation is called
pitchpand,
p=v||T= 2πm v|| /q B
The radius of the circular component of motion is called the radius of the
helix.

CBSE Class 12th Physics Notes: Ray Optics & Optical Instruments
Motion of a charge in Combined Electric and Magnetic Fields
A charge q moving with velocity v in presence of both electric and
magnetic fields experiences a force given by F =q(E +v×B) = FE + FB

Image Source: NCERT Books

Consider the situation shown in figure given above, in this particular case
we have:
Here, electric and magnetic forces are in opposite directions as shown in
the figure.

If we adjust the value of E and B such that magnitude of the two forces are
equal. Then, total force on the charge is zero and the charge will move in
the fields undeflected.

This happens when,qE=qvBor v = E/B

This condition can be used to select charged particles of a particular
velocity out of a beam containing charges moving with different speeds
(irrespective of their charge and mass). The crossed E and B fields,
therefore, serve as a velocity selector.

Only particles with speed E/B pass undeflected through the region of
crossed fields.

CBSE Class 12th Physics Notes: Semiconductor Electronics

Cyclotron:
It is a machine to accelerate charged particles or ions to high energies.

The cyclotron uses both electric and magnetic fields in combination to

increase the energy of charged particles. As the fields are perpendicular to
each other they are called crossed fields.
Image Source: NCERT Books
A schematic sketch of the cyclotron is shown in the figure given above.
There is a source of charged particles or ions at P which move in a circular
fashion in the dees, D1 and D2, on account of a uniform perpendicular
magnetic field B. An alternating voltage source accelerates these ions to
high speeds. The ions are eventually ‘extracted’ at the exit port.

In case of cyclotron,