Like a ball, a surface is just a shape in space that encloses a certain volume. The "ball" itself is just a rubberized shell around a pocket of air. Consider a common inflatable ball, such as a soccer ball, or a basketball. What a surface is, is a shell around a region of space. If we use the common convention that charge "flows out of" a positive charge, and "flows into" a negative charge, we can have a better understanding of what flux is.Ī surface is an abstract mathematical tool that we can use to explore various phenomena. If we draw our electric field lines so that our lines from our sinks connect to the lines from our drains, and if we ensure that no lines cross, the flux is essentially represented by the density of lines in our drawing. Water comes out of a source, flows around the field, and travels into the drain. Using the water analogy, point charges can be viewed as a source (such as a hose or faucet where water comes from), or a drain. The amount of water moving through it is the flux. In other words, it is analogous to a stream of water if you put a screen in a creek, then water will pass through it. 5 Expressing Gauss's Law in Terms of Divergenceįlux is effectively the amount of Field passing through a surface.
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