PHYS 1B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Electric Flux, Gaussian Surface, Tangent Space
Document Summary
Flux is the rate of transfer of fluid, particles, or energy across a given surface. The amount of something that flows through a given area. The number of field lines that cross a boundary of a given area. We define a normal vector at a point on a surface as the vector that is perpendicular to the tangent plane at that point. We can then define angles as being between the field vector direction and the surface normal vector direction. Effective surface is exactly perpendicular to the electric field and contains the same number of field lines as the tilted surface. The angle between the perpendicular surface and the surface normal is the same as the angle of the field lines through the tilted surface normal. A gaussian surface is an imaginary surface that we create for the purpose of doing calculations with electric fields. Open gaussian surfaces do not enclose any volume.
