Chapter 21: Electric Charges

Electric Charges
Electric charge is an intrinsic characteristic of the fundamental particles making up
those objects; that is, it is a property that comes automatically with those particles
wherever they exist.

➢ Two types of charges exist (positive and negative)

➢ Like charges repel and unlike charges attract one another

➢ Nature’s basic carrier of positive charge is the proton

• Protons do not move from one material to another because they are held firmly in the nucleus

➢ Nature’s basic carrier of negative charge is the electron

• Gaining or losing electrons is how an object becomes charged
Electric Charges

Plastic rubbed with Glass rubbed with silk

fur: plastic - and fur + cloth: glass + and silk -
Polarization by Conduction (Contact)

4
Electric Charges
Polarization by Induction (NO contact between the objects)
Electric Charges
Charging by Induction (no contact)

• When an object is connected to a conducting wire or pipe buried in the earth, it is said
to be grounded
• A negatively charged rubber rod is brought near a neutral sphere. The charges in the
sphere are redistributed: Some of the electrons in the sphere are repelled from the
electrons in the rod
• The region of the sphere nearest the negatively charged rod has an excess of positive
charge because of the migration of electrons away from this location.
• A grounded conducting wire is connected to the sphere(Allows some of the electrons
to move from the sphere to the ground)
• The wire to ground is removed, the sphere is left with an excess of induced positive
charge
• The positive charge on the sphere is evenly distributed due to the repulsion between
the positive charges
Electric Charges
The ability of charges to move in a material defines its category

• Conductors are materials in which a significant number of electrons are free to move
freely. Famous examples: metals. Outermost electrons are loosely held by nucleus

• Insulators The charged particles in nonconductors or insulators are not free to move.
Examples include rubber, plastic, glass. Outermost electrons are tightly held by nucleus

• Semiconductors are materials that are intermediate between conductors and insulators;
examples include silicon and germanium in computer chips.

• Superconductors are materials that are perfect conductors, allowing charge to move
without any resistance.
Electric Charges

• A neutral atom has equal numbers of protons and electrons

• An atom becomes a positive ion when it loses electrons and a
negative ion when it gains electrons
 Electric Charges
Conduction Electrons
• When atoms of a conductor like copper come together to
form the solid, some of their outermost—and so most loosely
held—electrons become free to wander about within the
solid, leaving behind positively charged atoms ( positive ions).

• We call the mobile electrons conduction electrons. There are

few (if any) free electrons in a nonconductor.

• only conduction electrons, with their negative charges, can

move;positive ions are fixed in place. Thus, an object
becomes positively charged only through the removal of
negative charges.
Electric Charges

Although the copper rod is still

neutral, it is said to have an
induced charge, which means
that some of its positive and
negative charges have been
separated due to the presence
of a nearby charge

Induced Charge: A neutral copper rod is electrically isolated from its surroundings by being suspended on
a non-conducting thread. Bring a charged plastic rod to one end (any end), conduction electrons in the
copper rod are repelled to the far end of that rod by the negative charge on the plastic rod. Then that
negative charge attracts the remaining positive charge on the near end of the copper rod, rotating the
copper rod to bring that near end closer to the plastic rod.
11
Electric Charges

Charge and Matter:

Example of Insulator
Polarization

• The charged object (on the

left) induces charge on the
surface of the insulator
• A charged hat attracts few
hairs due to polarization of
the hair
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 Coulomb’s Law

• Charles Coulomb measured the

magnitudes of electrostatic forces
between two small charged spheres

• He found that the force depends on

the charges and the distance between
them

• Upon analysis of his data he found

that the force is linearly proportional
to the charges and inversely
proportional to the square of the
distance between them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA83Rl6eqqY
Coulomb’s Law

• The electrostatic force (or Coulomb’s force) on particle 1 can be described in terms of a
unit vector r along an axis through the two particles, radially away from particle 2.

• Coulomb’s law describes the electrostatic force(or electric force) between two charged
particles. If the particles have charges q1 and q2, are separated by distance r, and are at
rest (or moving only slowly) relative to each other, then the magnitude of the force
acting on each due to the other is given by

Unit C (1C= 1A.1s)

where ε0= 8.85 ×10-12 C2/N.m2 is the permittivity constant. The ratio 1/4πε0 is often
replaced with the electrostatic constant (or Coulomb constant) k=8.99×109 C2/N.m2 . Thus
k = 1/4πε0 .
Coulomb’s Law
The electrostatic force vector acting on a charged particle due to a second charged particle is
either directly toward the second particle (opposite signs of charge) or directly away from it
(same sign of charge).

The like charges produce a The like charges produce a

repulsive force between them repulsive force between them
The force on q1 is equal in The force on q1 is equal in
magnitude and opposite in magnitude and opposite in
direction to the force on q2 direction to the force on q2
Coulomb’s Law for multiple charges
Now what happens if we have more than 2 charges??

Multiple Forces: If multiple electrostatic forces act on a particle, the net force is the
vector sum (not scalar sum) of the individual forces.
Trigonometry Review

Review the trigonometric functions: sine, cosine, tangent.

And the inverse trigonometric functions.
Page 41 & 42 of the book.
Vectors and Their Components

The components are the legs   

of the right triangle whose A = Ax + Ay
hypotenuse is A

 Ax = A cos( )  Ay 
 A = A 2
+ A2
and  = tan  
−1

 A = A sin(  ) x y
y
 Ax 

 A = ( A )2 + (A )2
 x y

 Ay −1 
Ay 
tan ( ) = or  = tan  
 Ax  Ax 
Scalars and Vectors

All physical quantities encountered in this text will be either a scalar or a vector

⚫ A vector is a mathematical object with size and direction (specified by two or more
numbers)
⚫ Examples: position, velocity, acceleration
⚫ Vectors have their own rules for manipulation

⚫ A scalar is a quantity that does not have a direction (specified by a single number)
⚫ Examples: time, temperature, energy, mass
⚫ Scalars are manipulated with ordinary algebra
Adding and subtracting vectors

Multiplying a vector by a scalar

 Vector components

⚫ Rather than using a graphical method, vectors can be added by

components
o A component is the projection of a vector on an axis
⚫ The process of finding components is called resolving the vector
⚫ θ is the angle the vector makes
with the positive x axis, and a is
the vector length
⚫ The length and angle can also be
found if the components are
known
⚫ Therefore, components fully
define a vector with a magnitude
and direction
 Adding and subtracting vectors by components

⚫ A unit vector
o Has magnitude 1
o Has a particular direction
o Lacks both dimension and unit
o Is labeled with a hat: ^

Vectors can be added and subtracted using components

Adding and subtracting vectors by components

r= r1 + r2
r=(3.5 - 1.6)m î + (2.9 + 3.0)m ĵ
r = 1.9m î + 5.9m î

r= r2 - r1
r=(3.5 + 1.6)m î + (2.9 - 3.0)m ĵ
r = 5.1m î – 0.1 m î
25
Electric Charges

Charge is Quantized

• Electric charge is measured in Coulomb

• The smallest charge you can find is
• Electric charge is quantized (have discrete values).
All other charges are multiple of this charge. (Quarks are the exception)

• The charge of a particle can be written as ne, where n is a positive or negative integer and e is
the elementary charge. Any positive or negative charge q that can be detected can be written as

in which e, the elementary charge, has the approximate value

Electric Charges
Charge is Conserved
If you rub a glass rod with silk, a positive charge appears on the rod. Measurement shows that a negative
charge of equal magnitude appears on the silk. This suggests that rubbing does not create charge but only
transfers it from one body to another
The net electric charge of any isolated system is always conserved.
• When two charged particles undergo an annihilation process,
they have equal and opposite signs of charge.

• When two charged particles appear as a result of a pair

production process, they have equal and opposite signs of charge.

✓ Charge is not created, only exchanged

✓ Objects become charged because negative charge is
transferred from one object to another