# Gauss's Law

by thisisfudd
Tags: gauss
 P: 56 Hi all, Can someone give me a better explanation of precisely what Gauss's law and the term "electric flux" mean (better, that is, than Giancoli 6th edition, where they never really define it ). I just want to get a handle on the concept in general. Thanks ~
 Sci Advisor HW Helper P: 11,866 A highly intuitive and rather mathematically unrigurous approach would be defining the flux of a vector field (i hopeu know what a vector field is) through a closed surface S as the # of field lines which cross the surface S which encloses some volume.It's intuitive as it allows the interpretation of Gauss' law for magnetostatics as the fact that the vector field B has no sources,since the # of field lines must be zero... I would still reccomend you to get a grip on Griffiths' book ("Introduction to electrodynamics",irrelevant which edition) and read from there... Daniel.
 P: 136 flux is vectors per unit area. In this case it would be electric field per unit area. if you take an area element dA near a charge it has a high flux because of more field lines. Further away the flux would be lower because there are less field lines. Gauss's law pretty much says that when you have an enclosed area the flux is directly proportional to the charge enclosed no matter what shape you have your area.