Does Gauss' Law Hold for Non-Conservative Electric Fields?

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SUMMARY

The discussion confirms that Gauss's Law applies to all electric fields, including those produced by time-varying magnetic fields, which are non-conservative. While Gauss's Law defines the conservative component of the electric field, it must be supplemented by Faraday's Law to account for the non-conservative component. The integration of the induced electric field over a closed surface yields zero, indicating that it does not violate Gauss's Law. To fully describe the behavior of electric fields in these scenarios, all four of Maxwell's equations must be considered.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Gauss's Law
  • Familiarity with Faraday's Law
  • Knowledge of Maxwell's equations
  • Concept of conservative and non-conservative electric fields
NEXT STEPS
  • Study the implications of Maxwell's equations in electromagnetic theory
  • Explore the relationship between electric fields and magnetic fields in time-varying scenarios
  • Learn about the mathematical formulation of Faraday's Law
  • Investigate applications of Gauss's Law in various electromagnetic contexts
USEFUL FOR

Physics students, electrical engineers, and professionals working in electromagnetic theory or applications involving time-varying fields will benefit from this discussion.

miss photon
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the electric field produced due to a time varying magnetic field is non-conservative in nature. does it follow gauss law?
 
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Gauss law does not completely define electric field: it only defines the conservative component. Similary Faraday's law defines the non-conservative component, that gives 0 when integrated over suface of any volume.
So induced electric field is can't be determined by Gauss law, but does not violate Gauss law, because it contributes 0 to both sides od the equation.
 
another way to think about it is that if the charge enclosed in the closed surface referred to by Gauss's Law were constant, then we know that Gauss's Law is accurate and there is no net current that crosses the surface boundary. but there can be a current flowing in that is equal to the current flowing out. if that current is not time variant, then Gauss's Law still works, but if the current flowing into the closed surface remains equal to the current flowing out but they're varying in time, then Gauss's Law needs Faraday's Law to fully describe what's going on. really you need all four of Maxwell's Eqs. to fully describe what's going on.
 
miss photon said:
the electric field produced due to a time varying magnetic field is non-conservative in nature. does it follow gauss law?
All electric fields satisfy Gauss's law.
 
pam said:
All electric fields satisfy Gauss's law.

True. :)

But Gauss's law only gives the divergence... it must be supplemented by an equation giving the curl. So, although all electric fields satisfy Gauss's law, Gauss's law is not enough to determine the fields in all cases.
 
miss photon said:
the electric field produced due to a time varying magnetic field is non-conservative in nature. does it follow gauss law?
Yes....
 

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