Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Electric Potential & Gauss's Law

In course

PHYS-201(d): General physics: electromagnetism

The topics covered by the course are concepts of electromagnetism, properties of waves, and fluid mechanics. ...

Description

This lecture covers the concept of electric potential, Gauss's law, and the relationship between field vectors and charges. The instructor explains how to calculate the electric field using Gauss's law and the importance of symmetry in analyzing field vectors.

This video is available exclusively on Mediaspace for a restricted audience. Please log in to MediaSpace to access it if you have the necessary permissions.

Watch on Mediaspace

Instructor

Dirk Grundler

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Electromagnetism: Electrodynamics

Related concepts (32)

Electric potential

The electric potential (also called the electric field potential, potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as the amount of work energy needed per unit of electric charge to move this charge from a reference point to the specific point in an electric field. More precisely, it is the energy per unit charge for a test charge that is so small that the disturbance of the field under consideration is negligible.

Electric field

An electric field (sometimes E-field) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field, either attracting or repelling them. It also refers to the physical field for a system of charged particles. Electric fields originate from electric charges and time-varying electric currents. Electric fields and magnetic fields are both manifestations of the electromagnetic field, one of the four fundamental interactions (also called forces) of nature.

Gauss's law

In physics and electromagnetism, Gauss's law, also known as Gauss's flux theorem, (or sometimes simply called Gauss's theorem) is a law relating the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric field. In its integral form, it states that the flux of the electric field out of an arbitrary closed surface is proportional to the electric charge enclosed by the surface, irrespective of how that charge is distributed.

Vector calculus

Vector calculus, or vector analysis, is concerned with differentiation and integration of vector fields, primarily in 3-dimensional Euclidean space The term "vector calculus" is sometimes used as a synonym for the broader subject of multivariable calculus, which spans vector calculus as well as partial differentiation and multiple integration. Vector calculus plays an important role in differential geometry and in the study of partial differential equations.

Conservative vector field

In vector calculus, a conservative vector field is a vector field that is the gradient of some function. A conservative vector field has the property that its line integral is path independent; the choice of any path between two points does not change the value of the line integral. Path independence of the line integral is equivalent to the vector field under the line integral being conservative. A conservative vector field is also irrotational; in three dimensions, this means that it has vanishing curl.

Related lectures (48)

Second Maxwell's equation: Magnetic dipole

Covers Maxwell's equations, magnetic dipoles, vector potential, torque, and field patterns.

Electrostatics: Basics and Applications

Introduces the basics of electrostatics, covering Coulomb's law, electric fields, capacitance, dielectrics, and more.

Electric Fields and Gauss's Law

Explores charged particles, electric dipoles, Gauss's law applications, conducting spheres, and the circuital law.

Electric Potential and Gauss's Law Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video

Explores electric potential, the principle of superposition, and Gauss's law.

Magnetostatics: Magnetic Field and Force Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video