Electrostatic and Capacitance Introduction

       The branch of electrical engineering which deals with electricity at rest called electrostatics. All electric phenomena are produced due to the various types of charges. The moving charges produce current and magnetic effects. The accelerated charges produce radiation. Apart from moving and accelerated charges, there exists one more type of charges called stationary charges or static charges. Static charges are responsible for the generation of the forces on other charges which called electrostatic forces. Electrostatic means the study of the static charges and the associated effects.

      Such static charges may be situated at a point when they are called point charges. When the static charges are distributed along the telephone lines or power lines, they are called line charges. When distributed over the surfaces such as surfaces of plates of capacitor, they are called surface charges. Static charges may exist in te entire volume in the form of a charge cloud then they are called volume charges. In the next articles we will discuss the behavior of electricity due to the static charges, the laws governing such behavior and concept of a capacitor.