ELECTROSTATI

C
Electric Field
 STATIC AND CURRENT
ELECTRICITY
• The current that is transported through wires into our houses is called
current electricity. The type of electricity has a continuous flow of
‘charged’ particles. These charged particles can flow through solid
(wires), liquids (car batteries), gases (fluorescent lamps) and vacuums
(TV pictures tubes).
• If the charged particles are not flowing or moving the electricity is called
static electricity. Static electricity can be converted to current electricity,
and the most common example is a lightening.
• If you have a PVC pipe, which is made of plastic, and a piece of cloth, that
you rubbed together, and then place the pipe near a piece of paper, it will
attract the paper. This is as a result of the plastic pipe becoming charged.
LAWS OF
CHARGES
• The fundamental law of charges
for static electricity is that like
chares repel and unlike charges
attract.
• There are only two types of
charges, positive and negative. If
you have two PVC pipe and rub
them both with cloth and place
them side by side, they will repel
each other, because they now
have the same charge.
 ELECTROSTATIC PHOTOCOPIER
• The law of charges is used in photocopier:
• 1. There is a rotating drum that is connected to the earth electrically. This
drum is covered in a material that is initially positively charged.
• 2. A light is passed over the paper that is being copied. The writing on the
paper would absorb the light because they are black, but the parts that
are blank would reflect the light on the drum as it rotates.
• 3. The light that falls on the drum causes the surfaces to be conductive
and the positive charge in these areas are discharged, it becomes neutral
because the negative charges that are flowing from the earth will cancel
it out the positive. The pattern of positive charge on the drum then
corresponds to the pattern of dark areas on the paper being copied.
 ELECTROSTATIC PHOTOCOPIER
• 4. The ink particles from the toner are initially negatively charged, and so
they become attracted to the positively charged particles from the drum.
• 5. After the toner pattern is attracted to the drum, more light is shone
onto it, which further displaces any positively charged particle that might
have remained.
 ELECTROSTATIC SPRAY PAINTING
• This technique is used to spray paint cars. The car is electrically
connected to a negative source, but in most cases, it’s connected to the
earth. The spray paint has tiny droplets of paint that are positively
charged. And so, the negative charge will attract them. The paint will be
evenly distributed because the positive charges of the paint will spread
out because they repel each other.
 ELECTROSTATIC FORCE
• The SI unit of electric charge is coulomb (C). If you have two tiny charges,
and , the force acting between them is directly proportional to the
product of the two charges.
• Therefore, if you have two charges and , at a distance of (r), between
them and you double the size of , the force would also double.
• There is also an established relationship between distance, r, and the
force experienced. The force is inversely proportional to the square of the
separation distance. F∝
 THEORY OF CHARGING AND
CONDUCTION
• All substances are made up of atoms.
Atoms are usually electrically neutral
because they have equal number of
protons and electrons.
• If you remove an electron from the
atom, it will become positively
charged. And if you add more
electrons to the atom, it will become
negatively charged. It is easier to
remove an electron from its orbit than
a proton from the nuelus.
 THEORY OF CHARGING AND
CONDUCTION
• In conductors, the outermost electrons are few and held loosely to the
rest of the atom. These electrons are called free electrons because they
are free to travel from the atom. If you place a positively charge material
near to a conductor, they will readily attract the object, and so they are
great for conducting electricity. Examples of conductors are silver and
copper and all other metals.
• The electrons in insulators are held firmly in place, and so they are not
able to move about freely. Because of this they are not good at
conducting electricity. If you bring a positively charged object near to an
insulator, there will be no attraction. However, if you put a big enough
charge beside the attraction, it will force an attraction, and this will cause
the insulator to break down.
 THEORY OF CHARGING AND
CONDUCTION
• Remember the example with the PVC pipe and the paper. The pipe was so
positively charged that it cause the paper which is an insulator to become
negatively charged. The paper broke down.
CHARGING BY
CONTACT
• Materials are charged either be
the additional or removal of
electrons. If you have negatively
charged metal rod and place it in
contact with a metal ball, it will
cause the positive charges in the
ball to move towards the rod and
the negative charges will repel
and move to the further end of the
ball.
• The ball will be left with an
excessive negative charge
because they were repelled.
 CHARGING BY FRICTION
(RUBBING)
• If you have a plastic rod and rub it vigorously with a woolen cloth,
electrons from the cloth are removed from the cloth to the rod. The rod
will become negatively charged and the cloth will become positively
charged. This works best with insulators.
• Think about a truck with oil experiencing friction as it rubs against the air
when moving. The truck can easily create sparks, and this can be very
dangerous, as a precautionary measure the trucks are equipped with
conducting tyres so that the charges acquired can discharge harmlessly
to the ground. This is called earthing.
CHARGING BY INDUCTION
• When charging by induction, a negatively
charged strip is brought near to a metal sphere.
Electrons move to the far side of the sphere. This
leaves the side next to the strip with excessive
positive charge. Since the strip and the sphere do
not touch, we say that this separation of charges
in the sphere is induced.
• The difference between charge by induction and
charge by contact, is that during induction, there
is no physically touching of the materials.
• If you connect a wire to the sphere and lead it to
the earth, electrons will move from the sphere to
the earth, and if the wire is removed, the sphere
will have an excessive positive charge.
 DETECTING AND ESTIMATING
CHARGE
• 5A22.30 Gold Leaf Electroscope

• 5A22.30 Gold Leaf Electroscope

 WHAT ARE
ELECTRIC
FIELDS?
• An electric field is the region
around an electric charge in which
another charge experiences a
force.

• E=F/q, Unit: N/C

• Where E is the electric field
strength
• F is the magnitude of the force
(attractive or repulsive) Newton(N)
• q is the magnitude of the charge
(Coulombs, C)
 DIRECTION OF ELECTRIC FIELD
• Positive point charges • Negative point charges
 When a positive test charge is  When a negative test charge is
placed in an electric field, it will placed in an electric field, it will
move in the direction of the move in the direction opposite to
electric field. the electric field.
IMAGINE THIS!!
If you had two positive charges, they would repel, and so the
electric field, would be moving away from the positive charge.
But, if you had a positive charge and a negative charge, then
they would attract, and so the electric field would be moving
towards the positive charge.
DIRECTION OF ELECTRIC FIELD
Field between two oppositely charged plates.
DIRECTION OF ELECTRIC FIELD
Field between two adjacent, opposite “point” charges
Field between two adjacent, like (negative) “point” charges.
 STORING ELECTRIC CHARGE
• Electric charge is stored in devices called capacitors. In early days van de
Graaff machine was used for storing large quantities of charge for
experimental purposes.
• A capacitor is an arrangement of two conductors, A and B, separated from
each other. The conductors may be separated by an insulator such as air,
paper, plastic, ceramic. A capacitor is charged by moving electrons from
one of the conductors to the other. A capacitor is charged by connecting
the conductors across the terminals of a battery.
 CAPACITANCE
• The capacitance, C, of a capacitor is defined as the charge stored per unit
potential difference across the plates. Thus, if the charge stored is Q
coulombs and the potential difference provided across the plates is , volts
then
C=
Capacitance is measured in farads (F), where one farad is equal to one
coulomb per volt. One farad is very large capacitance, which is difficult to
obtain ordinarily so capacitance is normally quoted in a small unit, the
microfarad (μF). One microfarad is of a farad..
 THE VAN DE GRAAFF MACHINE
• The Van de Graaff machine is used to store a great deal of charge. The
voltage can reach up to millions of volts. The charge is created by friction.

• How Van De Graaff Generators Work

 HAZARDS OF STATIC
ELECTRICITY- LIGHTNING
• Lightning is a large electric spark that
can occur in the following instances:
 Between the earth and a cloud.
 Between two clouds.
 Between different parts of the same
cloud.
 PROCESS OF
LIGHTNING

• It starts with the clouds,

where a cloud becomes
charged whether by
induction or friction. The top
of the cloud becomes
positively charged and the
bottom becomes negatively
charged.
 PROCESS OF LIGHTNINGS
 The negative charges at the bottom of the cloud, induces positive
charges on the earth, at the top of the buildings, etc.
 There will be an electric field between the base of the cloud and the
charges induced.
 The negative charges of the cloud will be attracted to the positive
charges of the cloud.
 In moving towards each other, the charges contain kinetic charges,
which will be converted to heat after collision.
 PROCESS OF LIGHTNINGS
• The air surrounding the charges upon collision becomes extremely
heated, and because of the surplus of electrons it causes ionization,
which leads to light being produced.
• The air also expands violently, due to the sudden heating of the air
molecules, which causes a shock wave that leads to thunder being heard.
 THINK ABOUT THIS!!
• Why should you not stand under a • Why are you asked to turn off your
tree during a thunderstorm? engines at the gas station?
ELECTROSTATIC
PRECIPITATOR
A precipitator works by maintaining a
high voltage (or p,d) across the
negatively charged rod and the
positively charged metalcylinder. This
is used to create an intense electric
field in the space between the rod and
the metalcylinder so that gases are
just ionized. A continuous stream of
electrons moves radially outwards
from the rod to the cylinder colliding
with the particles of smoke and ash
and attaches themselves to these
particles making them negatively
charged,
 ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR
• The negatively charged smoke particles now move (against the field)
outwards deposit themselves on the inside of the positively charged
cylinder. The cleaned gases are now discharged into the atmosphere.