ELECTRICITY © Pre-requisite : Before going through this chapter, you should be thorough with the basic concepts of the chapter explained in X NCERT, CONSERVATION OF ELECTRIC CHARGE) Whenever two bodies are charged by nisbing, one gets positively charged and the other gets negatively charged. The net charge on the two bodies, however. remains zero-the same as that before rubbing. In other words, charge is conserved. It can neither be created Ror be destroyed. The only thing that happens on rubbing is that charged particles (electrons) get transferred from one body to the other. In some phenomena, charged particles are created. But even then the conservation of charge holds. For ‘example, a free neutron converts itself nto an election and the proton taken together s also zero. So, there is ‘no change inthe conversion of a neutron to an electron and a proton [COULOMB'S LAW Charles Augustine de Coulomb studied the interaction forces of charged partcies in detall in 1784, He used a torsion balance. On the basis of his experiments he estabished Coulomb's law. According to this law the magnitude of the electric force between two point ‘charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitude of the two charges and inversely ‘proportional to the square of the distance between them and acts along the straight line joining the two charges, ‘In mathematical terms, the force that each of the two Point charges q, and q, at a distance r apart exerts on the other can be expressed as— Fak DM 2 This force is repulsive for lke charges and attractive for unlike charges. 1 Where kis @ constant of proportional. k= =~ here e, is absolute permittivity of free space. The force is crected along the line joining the centres. ofthe two charged particles. Forany other medium except ar, free space or vacuum ccoulomb’s law reduces to ame te? = Permtivty of the medium and ema, 5,5 relative Permitvit or dielectric constantof the me- dium, Coulomb's law is based on physical observation and itis not logically derived from any ether concept ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Find out the electrostatics force between two point charges placed in air (each of +1 C) if they are separated by tm kate _ 9x10%xtx4 r ? Note : From the, above result we can say that 1 C charge is too large to realize. In nature, charge is usually of the order of wc SOLF, 10° 2. A particle of mass m carrying charge a, is revolving ‘round a fixed charge -, na circular path of radius F. Calculate the period of revolution and its speed also. 1 a oa ae [sige Yanegmne [PROPERTIES OF ELECTRIC FIELD INTENSITY) @ Itis a vector quantity. Its direction is the same as the force experienced by positive charge. Gi) Electric field due to positive charge is always away from it while due to negative charge alvays towards it (i) ts 8.1, unit is Newton/Coulomd (iv) Electric force on a charge q placed in a region of electric field at @ point where the electric field intensity is & is given by F=qE Electric force on point charge is in the same direction of electric field on positive charge and in opposite direction on a negative charge. rc