Gauss's law: flux through closed surfaces

Enclose charges in a sphere, cube or cylinder, integrate E·dA numerically over the surface and verify Φ = q_enc/ε₀: charges outside contribute zero net flux; the surface shape and size do not matter.

About this experiment

What you do in the lab

Change the controls and watch the physics behave in real time in 3D. Live readouts and graphs show the numbers behind it, and the Learn tab has the theory, procedure, observations and viva questions. Works on a phone or a laptop, in English and Hindi.

Topics: Gauss's law · electric flux · closed surface · enclosed charge

More from this chapter

• Electric field on the axis of a ring and a disc
• Coulomb's law and superposition
• Electric dipole in uniform field: torque
• Electric field lines and dipole field
• Field and potential of a charged shell and a solid sphere
• Charging by friction, induction, conduction (electroscope)