# Intro: Electric Fields Sometimes, electric fields pass through surfaces. Be it from the positively-charged sphere that everybody has in the back of their rooms to the wires in their walls, it's important for us to always note the amount of charge incident on a conducting surface. And what better way to do that than Gauss's Law? ![[gausslawcomic.png]] *Don't muck up the conductors!* # Electric Flux # Gauss' Law of Electrostatics %%along the SPHERICAL surface is symmetrical so intS = 4pir^2. So the electric field along the surface MUST be equal and will just be a constant...%% $\frac{Q}{\epsilon_{0}} = 4\pi r^2*\hat{r} * E(r)$ So: $E = \frac{Q}{4\pi \epsilon_{0}r^2}$ (so write the reverse! :) ) %%Talk about the inverse square law more. This way, you can segway into...%% # EXTENSION: Gauss's Law of Gravity Gauss's law of gravity is similar to its electrostatic counterpart - just the gravitational field enclosed in an area equals to 4 times pi times the gravitational constant times the mass enclosed within this area: $\int g \, dA = -4\pi GM_{enclosed} $ Where $M_{enclosed}$ refers to the mass that the object in question is orbiting.