Electric charge (symbol q, sometimes Q) is the physical property of matter that

causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric

charge can be positive or negative. Like charges repel each other and unlike
charges attract each other. An object with no net charge is referred to as
electrically neutral. Early knowledge of how charged substances interact is now
called classical electrodynamics, and is still accurate for problems that do not
require consideration of quantum effects.

Electric charge is a conserved property: the net charge of an isolated system, the
quantity of positive charge minus the amount of negative charge, cannot change.
Electric charge is carried by subatomic particles. In ordinary matter, negative
charge is carried by electrons, and positive charge is carried by the protons in
the nuclei of atoms. If there are more electrons than protons in a piece of matter,
it will have a negative charge, if there are fewer it will have a positive charge,
and if there are equal numbers it will be neutral. Charge is quantized: it comes in
integer multiples of individual small units called the elementary charge, e, about
1.602×10−19 C,[1] which is the smallest charge that can exist freely. Particles
called quarks have smaller charges, multiples of
1
/
3
e, but they are found only combined in particles that have a charge that is an
integer multiple of e. In the Standard Model, charge is an absolutely conserved
quantum number. The proton has a charge of +e, and the electron has a charge of −e.

Today, a negative charge is defined as the charge carried by an electron and a

positive charge is that carried by a proton. Before these particles were
discovered, a positive charge was defined by Benjamin Franklin as the charge
acquired by a glass rod when it is rubbed with a silk cloth.

Electric charges produce electric fields.[2] A moving charge also produces a

magnetic field.[3] The interaction of electric charges with an electromagnetic
field (a combination of an electric and a magnetic field) is the source of the
electromagnetic (or Lorentz) force,[4] which is one of the four fundamental
interactions in physics. The study of photon-mediated interactions among charged
particles is called quantum electrodynamics.[5]

The SI derived unit of electric charge is the coulomb (C) named after French
physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb. In electrical engineering it is also common
to use the ampere-hour (A⋅h). In physics and chemistry it is common to use the
elementary charge (e) as a unit. Chemistry also uses the Faraday constant, which is
the charge of one mole of elementary charges.

Overview

Diagram showing field lines and equipotentials around an electron, a negatively

charged particle. In an electrically neutral atom, the number of electrons is equal
to the number of protons (which are positively charged), resulting in a net zero
overall charge
Charge is the fundamental property of matter that exhibits electrostatic attraction
or repulsion in the presence of other matter with charge. Electric charge is a
characteristic property of many subatomic particles. The charges of free-standing
particles are integer multiples of the elementary charge e; we say that electric
charge is quantized. Michael Faraday, in his electrolysis experiments, was the
first to note the discrete nature of electric charge. Robert Millikan's oil drop
experiment demonstrated this fact directly, and measured the elementary charge. It
has been discovered that one type of particle, quarks, have fractional charges of
either −
1
/
3
or +
2
/
3
, but it is believed they always occur in multiples of integral charge; free-
standing quarks have never been observed.

By convention, the charge of an electron is negative, −e, while that of a proton is

positive, +e. Charged particles whose charges have the same sign repel one another,
and particles whose charges have different signs attract. Coulomb's law quantifies
the electrostatic force between two particles by asserting that the force is
proportional to the product of their charges, and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between them. The charge of an antiparticle equals that of
the corresponding particle, but with opposite sign.

The electric charge of a macroscopic object is the sum of the electric charges of
the particles that it is made up of. This charge is often small, because matter is
made of atoms, and atoms typically have equal numbers of protons and electrons, in
which case their charges cancel out, yielding a net charge of zero, thus making the
atom neutral.

An ion is an atom (or group of atoms) that has lost one or more electrons, giving
it a net positive charge (cation), or that has gained one or more electrons, giving
it a net negative charge (anion). Monatomic ions are formed from single atoms,
while polyatomic ions are formed from two or more atoms that have been bonded
together, in each case yielding an ion with a positive or negative net charge.

Electric field induced by a positive electric charge

Electric field induced by a negative electric charge
Electric field induced by a positive electric charge (left) and a field induced by
a negative electric charge (right).
During the formation of macroscopic objects, constituent atoms and ions usually
combine to form structures composed of neutral ionic compounds electrically bound
to neutral atoms. Thus macroscopic objects tend toward being neutral overall, but
macroscopic objects are rarely perfectly net neutral.

Sometimes macroscopic objects contain ions distributed throughout the material,

rigidly bound in place, giving an overall net positive or negative charge to the
object. Also, macroscopic objects made of conductive elements can more or less
easily (depending on the element) take on or give off electrons, and then maintain
a net negative or positive charge indefinitely. When the net electric charge of an
object is non-zero and motionless, the phenomenon is known as static electricity.
This can easily be produced by rubbing two dissimilar materials together, such as
rubbing amber with fur or glass with silk. In this way, non-conductive materials
can be charged to a significant degree, either positively or negatively. Charge
taken from one material is moved to the other material, leaving an opposite charge
of the same magnitude behind. The law of conservation of charge always applies,
giving the object from which a negative charge is taken a positive charge of the
same magnitude, and vice versa.

Even when an object's net charge is zero, the charge can be distributed non-
uniformly in the object (e.g., due to an external electromagnetic field, or bound
polar molecules). In such cases, the object is said to be polarized. The charge due
to polarization is known as bound charge, while the charge on an object produced by
electrons gained or lost from outside the object is called free charge. The motion
of electrons in conductive metals in a specific direction is known as electric
current.
Unit
The SI unit of quantity of electric charge is the coulomb (symbol: C). The coulomb
is defined as the quantity of charge that passes through the cross section of an
electrical conductor carrying one ampere for one second.[6] This unit was proposed
in 1946 and ratified in 1948.[6] The lowercase symbol q is often used to denote a
quantity of electric charge. The quantity of electric charge can be directly
measured with an electrometer, or indirectly measured with a ballistic
galvanometer.

The elementary charge (the electric charge of the proton) is defined as a

fundamental constant in the SI.[7] The value for elementary charge, when expressed
in SI units, is exactly 1.602176634×10−19 C.[1]

After discovering the quantized character of charge, in 1891, George Stoney

proposed the unit 'electron' for this fundamental unit of electrical charge. J. J.
Thomson subsequently discovered the particle that we now call the electron in 1897.
The unit is today referred to as elementary charge, fundamental unit of charge, or
simply denoted e, with the charge of an electron being −e. The charge of an
isolated system should be a multiple of the elementary charge e, even if at large
scales charge seems to behave as a continuous quantity. In some contexts it is
meaningful to speak of fractions of an elementary charge; for example, in the
fractional quantum Hall effect.

The unit faraday is sometimes used in electrochemistry. One faraday is the

magnitude of the charge of one mole of elementary charges,[8] i.e.
9.648533212...×104 C.

History
See also: History of electromagnetic theory and Electricity § History

Coulomb's torsion balance

From ancient times, people were familiar with four types of phenomena that today
would all be explained using the concept of electric charge: (a) lightning, (b) the
torpedo fish (or electric ray), (c) St Elmo's Fire, and (d) that amber rubbed with
fur would attract small, light objects.[9] The first account of the amber effect is
often attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Thales of Miletus, who lived
from c. 624 to c. 546 BC, but there are doubts about whether Thales left any
writings;[10] his account about amber is known from an account from early 200s.[11]
This account can be taken as evidence that the phenomenon was known since at least
c. 600 BC, but Thales explained this phenomenon as evidence for inanimate objects
having a soul.[11] In other words, there was no indication of any conception of
electric charge. More generally, the ancient Greeks did not understand the
connections among these four kinds of phenomena. The Greeks observed that the
charged amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair. They also found
that if they rubbed the amber for long enough, they could even get an electric
spark to jump,[citation needed] but there is also a claim that no mention of
electric sparks appeared until late 17th century.[12] This property derives from
the triboelectric effect. In late 1100s, the substance jet, a compacted form of
coal, was noted to have an amber effect,[13] and in the middle of the 1500s,
Girolamo Fracastoro, discovered that diamond also showed this effect.[14] Some
efforts were made by Fracastoro and others, especially Gerolamo Cardano to develop
explanations for this phenomenon.[15]

In contrast to astronomy, mechanics, and optics, which had been studied

quantitatively since antiquity, the start of ongoing qualitative and quantitative
research into electrical phenomena can be marked with the publication of De Magnete
by the English scientist William Gilbert in 1600.[16] In this book, there was a
small section where Gilbert returned to the amber effect (as he called it) in
addressing many of the earlier theories,[15] and coined the Neo-Latin word
electrica (from ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron), the Greek word for amber). The Latin word was
translated into English as electrics.[17] Gilbert is also credited with the term
electrical, while the term electricity came later, first attributed to Sir Thomas
Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica from 1646.[18] (For more linguistic details see
Etymology of electricity.) Gilbert hypothesized that this amber effect could be
explained by an effluvium (a small stream of particles that flows from the electric
object, without diminishing its bulk or weight) that acts on other objects. This
idea of a material electrical effluvium was influential in the 17th and 18th
centuries. It was a precursor to ideas developed in the 18th century about
"electric fluid" (Dufay, Nollet, Franklin) and "electric charge".[19]

Around 1663 Otto von Guericke invented what was probably the first electrostatic
generator, but he did not recognize it primarily as an electrical device and only
conducted minimal electrical experiments with it.[20] Other European pioneers were
Robert Boyle, who in 1675 published the first book in English that was devoted
solely to electrical phenomena.[21] His work was largely a repetition of Gilbert's
studies, but he also identified several more "electrics",[22] and noted mutual
attraction between two bodies.[21]

In 1729 Stephen Gray was experimenting with static electricity, which he generated
using a glass tube. He noticed that a cork, used to protect the tube from dust and
moisture, also became electrified (charged). Further experiments (e.g., extending
the cork by putting thin sticks into it) showed—for the first time—that electrical
effluvia (as Gray called it) could be transmitted (conducted) over a distance. Gray
managed to transmit charge with twine (765 feet) and wire (865 feet).[23] Through
these experiments, Gray discovered the importance of different materials, which
facilitated or hindered the conduction of electrical effluvia. John Theophilus
Desaguliers, who repeated many of Gray's experiments, is credited with coining the
terms conductors and insulators to refer to the effects of different materials in
these experiments.[23] Gray also discovered electrical induction (i.e., where
charge could be transmitted from one object to another without any direct physical
contact). For example, he showed that by bringing a charged glass tube close to,
but not touching, a lump of lead that was sustained by a thread, it was possible to
make the lead become electrified (e.g., to attract and repel brass filings).[24] He
attempted to explain this phenomenon with the idea of electrical effluvia.[25]

Gray's discoveries introduced an important shift in the historical development of

knowledge about electric charge. The fact that electrical effluvia could be
transferred from one object to another, opened the theoretical possibility that
this property was not inseparably connected to the bodies that were electrified by
rubbing.[26] In 1733 Charles François de Cisternay du Fay, inspired by Gray's work,
made a series of experiments (reported in Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des
Sciences), showing that more or less all substances could be 'electrified' by
rubbing, except for metals and fluids[27] and proposed that electricity comes in
two varieties that cancel each other, which he expressed in terms of a two-fluid
theory.[28] When glass was rubbed with silk, du Fay said that the glass was charged
with vitreous electricity, and, when amber was rubbed with fur, the amber was
charged with resinous electricity. In contemporary understanding, positive charge
is now defined as the charge of a glass rod after being rubbed with a silk cloth,
but it is arbitrary which type of charge is called positive and which is called
negative.[29] Another important two-fluid theory from this time was proposed by
Jean-Antoine Nollet (1745).[30]

Up until about 1745, the main explanation for electrical attraction and repulsion
was the idea that electrified bodies gave off an effluvium.[31] Benjamin Franklin
started electrical experiments in late 1746,[32] and by 1750 had developed a one-
fluid theory of electricity, based on an experiment that showed that a rubbed glass
received the same, but opposite, charge strength as the cloth used to rub the
glass.[32][33] Franklin imagined electricity as being a type of invisible fluid
present in all matter and coined the term charge itself (as well as battery and
some others[34]); for example, he believed that it was the glass in a Leyden jar
that held the accumulated charge. He posited that rubbing insulating surfaces
together caused this fluid to change location, and that a flow of this fluid
constitutes an electric current. He also posited that when matter contained an
excess of the fluid it was positively charged and when it had a deficit it was
negatively charged. He identified the term positive with vitreous electricity and
negative with resinous electricity after performing an experiment with a glass tube
he had received from his overseas colleague Peter Collinson. The experiment had
participant A charge the glass tube and participant B receive a shock to the
knuckle from the charged tube. Franklin identified participant B to be positively
charged after having been shocked by the tube.[35] There is some ambiguity about
whether William Watson independently arrived at the same one-fluid explanation
around the same time (1747). Watson, after seeing Franklin's letter to Collinson,
claims that he had presented the same explanation as Franklin in spring 1747.[36]
Franklin had studied some of Watson's works prior to making his own experiments and
analysis, which was probably significant for Franklin's own theorizing.[37] One
physicist suggests that Watson first proposed a one-fluid theory, which Franklin
then elaborated further and more influentially.[38] A historian of science argues
that Watson missed a subtle difference between his ideas and Franklin's, so that
Watson misinterpreted his ideas as being similar to Franklin's.[39] In any case,
there was no animosity between Watson and Franklin, and the Franklin model of
electrical action, formulated in early 1747, eventually became widely accepted at
that time.[37] After Franklin's work, effluvia-based explanations were rarely put
forward.[40]

It is now known that the Franklin model was fundamentally correct. There is only
one kind of electrical charge, and only one variable is required to keep track of
the amount of charge.[41]

Until 1800 it was only possible to study conduction of electric charge by using an
electrostatic discharge. In 1800 Alessandro Volta was the first to show that charge
could be maintained in continuous motion through a closed path.[42]

In 1833, Michael Faraday sought to remove any doubt that electricity is identical,
regardless of the source by which it is produced.[43] He discussed a variety of
known forms, which he characterized as common electricity (e.g., static
electricity, piezoelectricity, magnetic induction), voltaic electricity (e.g.,
electric current from a voltaic pile), and animal electricity (e.g.,
bioelectricity).

In 1838, Faraday raised a question about whether electricity was a fluid or fluids
or a property of matter, like gravity. He investigated whether matter could be
charged with one kind of charge independently of the other.[44] He came to the
conclusion that electric charge was a relation between two or more bodies, because
he could not charge one body without having an opposite charge in another body.[45]

In 1838, Faraday also put forth a theoretical explanation of electric force, while
expressing neutrality about whether it originates from one, two, or no fluids.[46]
He focused on the idea that the normal state of particles is to be nonpolarized,
and that when polarized, they seek to return to their natural, nonpolarized state.

In developing a field theory approach to electrodynamics (starting in the mid-

1850s), James Clerk Maxwell stops considering electric charge as a special
substance that accumulates in objects, and starts to understand electric charge as
a consequence of the transformation of energy in the field.[47] This pre-quantum
understanding considered magnitude of electric charge to be a continuous quantity,
even at the microscopic level.[47]
The role of charge in static electricity
Static electricity refers to the electric charge of an object and the related
electrostatic discharge when two objects are brought together that are not at
equilibrium. An electrostatic discharge creates a change in the charge of each of
the two objects.

Electrification by sliding
Further information: Triboelectric effect
When a piece of glass and a piece of resin—neither of which exhibit any electrical
properties—are rubbed together and left with the rubbed surfaces in contact, they
still exhibit no electrical properties. When separated, they attract each other.

A second piece of glass rubbed with a second piece of resin, then separated and
suspended near the former pieces of glass and resin causes these phenomena:

The two pieces of glass repel each other.

Each piece of glass attracts each piece of resin.
The two pieces of resin repel each other.
This attraction and repulsion is an electrical phenomenon, and the bodies that
exhibit them are said to be electrified, or electrically charged. Bodies may be
electrified in many other ways, as well as by sliding. The electrical properties of
the two pieces of glass are similar to each other but opposite to those of the two
pieces of resin: The glass attracts what the resin repels and repels what the resin
attracts.

If a body electrified in any manner whatsoever behaves as the glass does, that is,
if it repels the glass and attracts the resin, the body is said to be vitreously
electrified, and if it attracts the glass and repels the resin it is said to be
resinously electrified. All electrified bodies are either vitreously or resinously
electrified.

An established convention in the scientific community defines vitreous

electrification as positive, and resinous electrification as negative. The exactly
opposite properties of the two kinds of electrification justify our indicating them
by opposite signs, but the application of the positive sign to one rather than to
the other kind must be considered as a matter of arbitrary convention—just as it is
a matter of convention in mathematical diagram to reckon positive distances towards
the right hand.[48]

The role of charge in electric current

Electric current is the flow of electric charge through an object. The most common
charge carriers are the positively charged proton and the negatively charged
electron. The movement of any of these charged particles constitutes an electric
current. In many situations, it suffices to speak of the conventional current
without regard to whether it is carried by positive charges moving in the direction
of the conventional current or by negative charges moving in the opposite
direction. This macroscopic viewpoint is an approximation that simplifies
electromagnetic concepts and calculations.

At the opposite extreme, if one looks at the microscopic situation, one sees there
are many ways of carrying an electric current, including: a flow of electrons; a
flow of electron holes that act like positive particles; and both negative and
positive particles (ions or other charged particles) flowing in opposite directions
in an electrolytic solution or a plasma.

Beware that, in the common and important case of metallic wires, the direction of
the conventional current is opposite to the drift velocity of the actual charge
carriers; i.e., the electrons. This is a source of confusion for beginners.
Conservation of electric charge
Main article: Charge conservation
The total electric charge of an isolated system remains constant regardless of
changes within the system itself. This law is inherent to all processes known to
physics and can be derived in a local form from gauge invariance of the wave
function. The conservation of charge results in the charge-current continuity
equation. More generally, the rate of change in charge density ρ within a volume of
integration V is equal to the area integral over the current density J through the
closed surface S = ∂V, which is in turn equal to the net current I:

−
𝑑
𝑑
𝑡
∫
𝑉
𝜌
d
𝑉
=
{\displaystyle -{\frac {d}{dt}}\int _{V}\rho \,\mathrm {d} V=} \oiint
∂
𝑉
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle \partial V}
𝐽
⋅
d
𝑆
=
∫
𝐽
d
𝑆
cos
⁡
𝜃
=
𝐼
.
{\displaystyle \mathbf {J} \cdot \mathrm {d} \mathbf {S} =\int J\mathrm {d} S\cos \
theta =I.}
Thus, the conservation of electric charge, as expressed by the continuity equation,
gives the result:

𝐼
=
−
d
𝑞
d
𝑡
.
{\displaystyle I=-{\frac {\mathrm {d} q}{\mathrm {d} t}}.}
The charge transferred between times
𝑡
i
{\displaystyle t_{\mathrm {i} }} and
𝑡
f
{\displaystyle t_{\mathrm {f} }} is obtained by integrating both sides:

𝑞
=
∫
𝑡
i
𝑡
f
𝐼
d
𝑡
{\displaystyle q=\int _{t_{\mathrm {i} }}^{t_{\mathrm {f} }}I\,\mathrm {d} t}
where I is the net outward current through a closed surface and q is the electric
charge contained within the volume defined by the surface.

Relativistic invariance
Aside from the properties described in articles about electromagnetism, charge is a
relativistic invariant. This means that any particle that has charge q has the same
charge regardless of how fast it is travelling. This property has been
experimentally verified by showing that the charge of one helium nucleus (two
protons and two neutrons bound together in a nucleus and moving around at high
speeds) is the same as two deuterium nuclei (one proton and one neutron bound
together, but moving much more slowly than they would if they were in a helium
nucleus).[49][50][51]

See also
SI electromagnetism units
Color charge
Partial charge
Positron or antielectron is an antiparticle or antimatter counterpart of the
electron