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Physics LibreTexts

1.6A: Field of a Point Charge

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

It follows from equation 1.5.3 and the definition of electric field intensity that the electric field at a distance r from a point charge Q is of magnitude

E=Q4πϵ0r2.

This can be written in vector form:

E=Q4πϵ0r2ˆr=Q4πϵ0r3r.

Here ˆr is a unit vector in the radial direction, and r is a vector of length r in the radial direction.


This page titled 1.6A: Field of a Point Charge is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jeremy Tatum via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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