Module 1: Determining Electric Charges

Quantity of charge, q = N x e
and Matter Where: N is the number of excess or deficient electrons
e is the amount of charge carried by a electron
 You are a matter and almost all the everyday e = 1. 6 x 10 C/e
objects that we bumped into, touch or squeeze are
ultimately made up of atoms. Module 2: Describing Ways to Transfer
Atoms Charges
 Building blocks of matter
 Contains charge particles; protons, electrons and Electricity
neutrons  Flow of electrons or negative charge.
Static Electricity
Proton  Result of an imbalance between negative and
 Carries a positive charge positive charges in an object
 In solid materials, protons inside the atoms stay Examples:
fixed. 1. Shocked after walking on a carpet
Electron 2. Putting on a sweater
 Carries a negative charge. 3. Combing your hair
 Some electrons are free to move around. 4. Getting out of a car with cloth seats.

Matter Conductor
 Any substance that has mass and takes up space,  The thing that could conduct electricity or allow
that include atoms and anything made up of these. flow freely.
 All the everyday objects that we bump into, touch
or squeeze are ultimately made up of atoms. Insulator
 The thing that cannot conduct electricty.
 If there is an equal number of positive protons and  Can only be charged through rubbing but not
negative electrons, the net electric charge of the through conduction and induction.
atom is ZERO, means it is neutral.
 Both conductor and insulator can be charged.
Free Electrons
 Freely moving electrons Charging
 Free Electrons reside in an atom’s outer shell as  Gaining or losing electron.
valence electrons and are easily plucked off and
carried around, when acted by an outside force. 3 ways of Charging
1. Charging by Contact (or Conduction)
ELECTRICALLY CHARGED 2. Charging by Induction
 When an atom of matter has an imbalance number 3. Charging by Friction (or Rubbing)
of electrons and protons.
Example: 1. Charging by Contact (or Conduction)
When you brush a comb on your dry hair and attracts  Little irritations are caused when electric charge is
small sheets of paper. transferred from one substance to another
because the susbtances touch each other.
 Same charge repels  Shaking hands with a friend, touching your pet can
 Different charge attracts have an unexpected effect: an electric shock.

If there are fewer electrons than protons

 Positively charged
If there are more electrons than protons
 Negatively charged

 The elementary charge unit (e) is equal to the

charge of a single proton or electron.

 The elementary charge unit is not the standard SI

unit.

 The SI system uses the Cuolomb (C) as the

standard unit of charge.

 The symbol for electric charge is usually a “q”.

Charging by Induction 11. Meanwhile, the excess positive charge on sphere A
 Charging of a neutral object by bringing another remains located near the negatively charged
charged object close to; but not touching the balloon, consistent with the principle that opposite
neutral object. charges attract.
12. As the balloon is pulled away, there is a uniform
distribution of charge about the surface of both
spheres (see diagram iv. below).
13. This distribution occurs as the remaining electrons
in sphere A move across the surface of the sphere
until the excess positive charge is uniformly
distributed.

Charging by Friction (Rubbing)

 Rubbing two different materials together.
 Material losing electron is positively charged and
material gaining electron is negatively charged.
 Amount of gained and lost electron is equal to
each other. In other words, we can say that
charges of the system are conserved.
 Rubbing causes a transfer of electrons from one
object to another.

 If X loses electrons, X becomes positively charged.

 If Y gains electrons, Y becomes negatively charged.

1. The metal spheres are supported by insulating

stands so that any charge acquired by the spheres
cannot travel to the ground.
2. The spheres are placed side by side (see diagram i.
below) so as to form a two-sphere system.
3. Being made of metal (a conductor), electrons are
free to move between the spheres - from sphere A
to sphere B and vice versa.
4. If a rubber balloon is charged negatively (perhaps
by rubbing it with animal fur) and brought near the
spheres, electrons within the two-sphere system
will be induced to move away from the balloon.
This is simply the principle that like charges repel.
5. Being charged negatively, the electrons are
repelled by the negatively charged balloon.
6. And being present in a conductor, they are free to
move about the surface of the conductor.
7. Subsequently, there is a mass migration of
electrons from sphere A to sphere B. This electron
migration causes the two-sphere system to be
polarized (see diagram ii. below).
8. Overall, the two-sphere system is electrically
neutral. Yet the movement of electrons out of
sphere A and into sphere B separates the negative
charge from the positive charge.
9. Looking at the spheres individually, it would be
accurate to say that sphere A has an overall
positive charge and sphere B has an overall
negative charge.
10. Once the two-sphere system is polarized, sphere B NOTE!!
is physically separated from sphere A using the Friction - Rubbing
insulating stand. Having been pulled further from Conduction - Contact
the balloon, the negative charge likely Induction - Bring near
redistributes itself uniformly about sphere B (see
diagram iii. below).
Module 3: Calculating the Net Electric  This law states that the electrostatic force between
two objects is proportional to the product of the
Force on a Point Charge and Drawung charge of each of the objects and inversely
Electric Field of Lines proportional to the square of the distance between
these two objects,
Force
 Interaction between two objects that has the ability
to change the motion of one or both of the objects.

Electric Force
 A force that exists between all charged particles
and strongest when they are close together.
 One of the fundamental forces of the universe.
Example:
1. Making your hair stand up on a cold dry day
2. Creating chemical bonds
3. Allowing you to see when you turn on a lamp on a
dark night.

Electric Field
 Region around a charged particle or object within
which a force would be exerted on other charged
particles or objects.
 Space around an electrical charge. (Just like a
gravitational field is the space around a mass.)

Electric Field Lines

 Lines that indicate the strength and direction of the
electric field.

 The lines are directed away from positively

charged source charges.
 The lines are toward when it’s negatively charged
source charges.
 Each line must include an arrowhead that points in
the appropriate direction.
 An electric field line pattern could include an
infinite number of lines.
 The more dense the lines, the stronger the field.

Rules for drawing electric field patterns

 Field lines must begin on positive charges and
terminate on negative charges, or at infinity in the
hypothetical case of isolated charges.
 The number of field lines leaving a positive charge
or entering a negative charge is proportional to the
magnitude of the charge.
 The strength of the field is proportional to the
closeness of the field lines-- it is proportional to
the number of lines per unit area perpendicular to
the lines.
 The directiion of the electric field is tangent to the
field line at any point in space.
 FIELD LINES CAN NEVER CROSS.

Cuolomb’s Law
 Law of physics that describes the interaction
between electrically charged objects.
 It was first defined by physicist Charles-Augustin
de Cuolomb in 1783.