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somewhere I read gauss law states that electric flux passes through the surface is equal to the 1/ε times of the total enclosed charges in the entire volume.

and somewhere I read gauss law states that electric flux passes through the surface is equal to the total charges enclosed in the entire volume.

the difference between these two are is of 1/ε. how can these two be same?

2 Answers2

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Perhaps one of the authors uses a different unit system, like Gaussian instead of SI units. Have you checked that?

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It is because of the units you choose in writing the formulas.

In SI units you have to use the extra 1/ε factor. The second statement you refer to is actually in something called a Gaussian system of units where charge is defined in units such that $\epsilon_0 = \frac{1}{4\pi c}$ and $\mu_0 = \frac{4\pi}{c} $ where c = speed of light.

Using these definitions one can show that there is no need for $\epsilon_0$ while expressing Gauss's law.

For example, while expressing Coulomb's law in a Gaussian system we only write $F=\frac{Q_1Q_2}{r^2}$ where Q is charge expressed in statocoulomb instead of the familiar SI coulomb.

M. Enns
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Weezy
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