Electric Charges and Fields | Class 12 Physics Notes
By ConceptScroll Team · Published on 17 July 2026 · 2 min read
Electric Charges and Fields – this guide gives you a concise, exam-ready overview of Electric Charges and Fields from Class 12 Physics, written by ConceptScroll editors and reviewed against the latest NCERT textbook.
Coulomb's Law
Coulomb's law provides a quantitative description of the electrostatic force between two point charges. It states that the magnitude of the force (F) between two point charges q₁ and q₂ separated by a distance r in vacuum is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Mathematically, F = (1 / (4πε₀)) × (|q₁q₂| / r²), where ε₀ is the permittivity of free space, approximately 8.854 × 10⁻¹² C²/(N·m²). The force acts along the line joining the two charges. If the charges are of the same sign, the force is repulsive; if opposite, the force is attractive. Coulomb's law is a vector law, meaning the force has both magnitude and direction. It obeys the principle of superposition: the net force on a charge due to multiple other charges is the vector sum of the individual forces. This law is fundamental in electrostatics and analogous to Newton's law of gravitation but applies to electric charges.
📊 Diagram: Diagram showing two point charges q₁ and q₂ separated by distance r, with force vectors indicating attraction or repulsion along the line joining them.
🧪 Activity: No specific activity in this section.
🔗 Connection: Leads to the concept of electric field as a way to describe forces exerted by charges in space.
Frequently asked questions
Q5 If an electric dipole is placed in a uniform electric field , it experiences
Torque only
Q2. A body can be negatively charged
By adding some electrons to it
Q4.In a region where intensity of electric field is 5NC -1 , 40 electric field lines are crossing per square metre. The number of electric field lines crossing per square metre where intensity of electric field is 10 NC -1 , will be
80
Which of the following angle has minimum potential energy when dipole is placed in uniform electric field
0º
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