Electrostatics

In the first two chapters, we discussed in detail mathematical topics, such as vector algebra, coordinate systems, and vector calculus, which provide essential tools for the study of electromagnetics. We are now ready to study the basic concepts of electromagnetics and learn about their applications. This chapter focuses on electrostatics, which deals with static electric fields induced by static electric charges. The static electric fields and charges are constant in time, although they may vary in space. In the present chapter, we will see that all discussions of static electric fields can be boiled down to the divergence and the curl of the electric field. They are two fundamental relations in the sense that they allow us to uniquely determine a static electric field in a given region of space according to Helmholtz’s theorem.