GENERAL PHYSICS 2

THIRD QUARTER
WEEK 1

LESSON 1: Electric Charge

We can trace all electrical effects to electrons and protons inside every atom. This is because these
particles have a property called electric charge. The electrons are negative and surround a dense, positive
nucleus. Protons, which are positive, and neutrons reside in this nucleus. Neutrons are neutral and do not
participate in electrostatic interactions.

Just like mass, charge is a fundamental property of subatomic particles. The smallest amount of
charge is called the elementary charge, indicated universally by the symbol e. The elementary charge has
a magnitude of

1.60 x 10-19 C

The unit C stands for coulomb, named after French physicist Charles Agustin Coulomb.
An atom normally contains the same number of electrons and protons, so the overall negative
charge id just balanced by the overall positive charge. The resulting charge is zero, and thus, the atom is
neutral. And just like mass, charge is conserved. This means that charges are neither created nor
destroyed. There is the same amount of charge in the universe now as there has always been.

Example 1.1
How many electrons must an object lose so that it has a net positive charge of +1 C?
SOLUTION:
If the object loses one electron, its charge is +1.60 x 10-19 C; if two electrons are lost,
the object gains has a net charge of
2 x +1.60 x 10-19 C = 3.20 X 10-19 C.
And so forth. If we let n be the number of electrons lost and e the charge of each electron,
then the total charge Q is
Q = ne
Thus, the number of electrons the object must lose so that it has a net positive charge of +1
C is
𝑄 1𝐶
n= = = 6.25 𝑥 1018
𝑒 1.60 𝑋 10−19 𝐶

or more than six quintillion electrons!

This problem simply shows us that a charge of 1 C is enormous.
 Example 1.2
Aluminum has atomic number 13. This means that it has 13 electrons and 13 protons. What is
the total charge of all the electrons in an aluminium atom?
Solution:
We are given the number n. The charge of one electron is -1.60 x 10-19 C. So, if we have 13
electrons, each of which has a charge of -1.60 x 10-19, then the total charge is:
Q = ne = 13(-1.60 x 10-19 C) = -2.08 X 10-18 C
Thirteen electrons altogether still have a very small charge.

1.1 Conductors and Insulators

In certain materials such as aluminium, copper, and other metals, the outermost or valence electrons
are free to move around the entire material. Such materials are classified as conductors. In other materials,
such as glass and wood, the electrons are more tightly bound to the atom that they do not easily move
around. These materials are insulators. Good conductors are poor insulators; poor conductors are good
insulators. Most metals are conductors while most non-metals are insulators.
In a conductor, the outermost electrons are farther away from the nucleus that they are more weakly
bound to it. When atoms of a conductor form a bulk material, their outer electrons are no longer bound
to the atoms but are free to float over the material. These are called free electrons. When energy is applied
to these electrons, they can move in a more organized way, producing electric current.
Free electrons can also be moved from one material to another in a process called charging. Removing
an electron from an atom creates a positive ion.
1.2 Charging
In general, a material can be given a net charge by adding or removing electrons. There are several
ways of doing this:
1. Using Friction. By rubbing things together, electrons can peel off one material and remain in the
other. When we walk, your shoes lose a little bit of material to the ground. Electrons can be
transferred in this way. A rubber rod is charged by rubbing it on a wool cloth. In the process, the
wool cloth loses its electrons to the rod resulting in both the rod and the cloth being charged. The
same happens when you comb your hair.
2. By touching. When a charged object comes into contact with another object, electrons are
transferred, thereby charging the second object.
Imagine you have a small, lightweight Styrofoam ball hanging from an insulated stand. We bring
a negatively charged rubber rod to the ball, and by simply touching it, electrons from the rod
transfer to the ball. Now the ball and the rod are both negatively charged so they repel each other.
This is also called charging by conduction.
3. By induction. In this method, there is no actual contact between the charged object and that which
is being charged. In this way, the charged object does not lose its charge to the object that gets
charged in the process.
Through charging by induction, we bring a negatively charged rod close to a lightweight ball without
touching it. Electrons in the ball move as far away from the rod as possible. This makes the far side of
the ball more negative and the near side more positive. The ball is now polarized; it is still neutral but
the charges are uneven in distribution. Now that the near side is more positive, the ball is attracted to the
rod.
If we touch the ball now, not with the rod but with a finger, the electrons that are being repelled find
a way out. So they travel over the finger, which is a conductor, to the ground, draining some of the
electrons. Now the ball is positively charged. It has been charged by induction. It is attracted to the
negatively charged rod which did not lose any of its charges.
An easy way to see charging by induction is by running a comb through your hair a few times (or
rubbing it repeatedly with dry hands) and then holding it up over some small bits of paper. If you do this
in a dry room (where the humidity is low) and typically when the air is cool, you should see the bits of
paper jumping a small gap to cling to the comb. Charging by induction causes the charges in each piece
of paper to separate (and become polarized) and be attracted to the comb. This and other effects of
charging by induction are shown in the figure.

LESSON 2 COULOMB`S LAW

In the previous lesson, we saw that like charges repel while unlike charges attract. This suggests
the presence of an electrostatic force. This force is either a force of attraction between a positive and a
negative charge or a force of repulsion between two like charges. Electrostatic force holds the atom
together. The positive nucleus attracts the negative electrons around it in a similar way that the earth and
the other planets are held in orbit around the sun by gravity.
And this is not where the similarity ends. Recall that the force of gravity between two masses m1
and m2 is given by the equation:
𝑚1 𝑚2
𝐹𝑔 = 𝐺
𝑟2

In which G is the gravitational constant and r is the distance between the centers of the masses.
The electrostatic force between two charges Q1 and Q2 is given by a very similar equation, the
magnitude of the electrostatic force Fe is:

│𝑄1 𝑄2 │
𝐹𝑒 = 𝑘
𝑟2
This equation is called Coulomb`s Law. It tells us that the force in newton between two charges
is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the charges and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between them.
Note two things in Coulomb`s law. First, the absolute value sign means that the result is always
positive. This is, after all, the magnitude if the force, so it has to be positive. Then, we see a constant k.
This is the electrostatic constant. It is related to some fundamental constants of nature as follows.
1
𝑘=
4𝜋𝜀0
The constant 𝜀0 is called the permittivity of free space and is equal to 8.85 x 10-12 coulomb squared
per newton meter squared (C2/ N. m2). The permittivity of a medium is a measure of its ability to
store electrical energy.
Substituting the constants needed to get the value of k, we get an approximate value of:
1 1
𝑘= =
4𝜋𝜀0 4𝜋(8.85 𝑥 10−12 𝐶 2 /𝑁. 𝑚2
= 9 𝑋 109 𝑁. 𝑚2 /𝐶 2
 Example 1.3
Two charged spheres Q1 = -2.00 X 10-10 C and Q2= -5.00 X 10-8 C are held fixed at
positions 5.00 cm apart.
1. Calculate the magnitude of each electrostatic force between the two spheres. Are
the forces attractive or repulsive?
2. If the first sphere is set loose, what will be its resulting acceleration? It has a mass
of 5.00 x 10-3 kg.
SOLUTION:
1. To solve for the magnitude of the electrostatic force Fe, we substitute the values
into equation 1:
│𝑄1 𝑄2 │
𝐹𝑒 = 𝑘
𝑟2
9 2 2
(2.00 𝑋 10−10 𝐶)(5.00 𝑋 10−8 𝐶)
= 9𝑥 10 𝑁. 𝑚 /𝐶
(0.05 𝑚)2
= 3.6 𝑥 10−5 𝑁
The electrostatic forces are repulsive because both charges are negative.

2. If the first sphere were to be released, then it will accelerate at a rate given by Newton`s
second law of motion:
𝐹𝑒 3.6 𝑥 10−5 𝑁
𝑎= = −3
= 7.20 𝑥 10−3 𝑚/𝑠 2
𝑚 5.00 𝑋 10 𝑘𝑔

DIRECTION OF ELECTROSTATIC FORCE

The calculation we made in Example 1.3 does not tell us in any way whether the force is
directed toward the north, south, west, or east. The only way to find out is to sketch the problem out.
Let us assume that we are given a positive charge Q1 and a negative charge Q2, separated by a
distance r on a horizontal line. We already know that the force between them is attractive. In addition,
the attraction is mutual. This means that Q1 pulls on Q2, and at the same time, Q2 also pulls on Q1 with
the same amount (or magnitude) of force. This implies that there are two forces present.
Let us designate the force exerted by Q1 on Q2 as F12. Because this force is attractive, the said
force is directed toward Q1 (to the left), acting on Q2. At the same time, Q2 is attracting Q1 with the force
F21. This force is directed toward Q2 and is acting on Q1. It is, therefore, to the right.

Q1 Q2 Q1 Q2
F21 F12 F21 F12
+ - + +

r r

Figure 1.9 Attractive forces between two unlike charges. Figure 1.10 Repulsive forces between two like charges.
 On the other hand, if two like charges are involved, they push each other away. So in each case,
the force is directed away from whichever force is exerting it. For example, say that charges Q 1 and Q2
are both positive (Figure 1.10), then Q1 pushes Q2 away. So the force F12 acts on Q2 and is directed to
the right. And the same time, Q2 pushes Q1 away. So the force F21 acts on Q1 and is directed to the left.
Compare the attractive forces in Figure 1.9 with the repulsive forces in Figure 1.10, and
remember that electrostatic forces always come in pairs that are equal in magnitude and opposite in
direction.

Example 1.4
Two charged spheres Q1 = -2.00 x 10-5 C and Q2 = -1.50 x 10-5 C are 10.0 cm apart.
Calculate the force that each charge exerts on a third charge Q3 = 5.00 x 10-6 C as shown
in Figure 1.11.
Q1 Q2 Q3
- - +
10.0 cm 6.0 cm

SOLUTION:
There are two things we need to do. Calculate the magnitude of the force exerted by Q1
on Q3 (we will call it F13) and the magnitude of the force exerted by Q2 on Q3 (we will
call it F23).
While we solve for the magnitude of F13, we will ignore F23. So leaving out Q2, our
problem now looks like this (Figure 1.12):
Q1 F13 Q3
- +

16.0 cm
We are not concerned about the force exerted by Q3 on Q1 so we will leave that out too.
Using r13 = 16.0 cm = 0.16 m, we can get the magnitude of F13:

│𝑄1 𝑄3 │
𝐹13 = 𝑘 2
𝑟13

9 2
(2.00 𝑥10−5 𝐶)(5.00𝑥10−6 𝐶)
2
= 9𝑥10 𝑁. 𝑚 /𝐶
(0.16 𝑚)2
= 35.1 𝑁
This force is directed to the left.
To find F23, we ignore Q1 (Figure 1.13). Using r23 = 6cm = 0.06 m, we can get the magnitude of F23:

Q2 Q3

F23 - +
6.0 cm
𝑄2 𝑄3
𝐹23 = 𝑘 2
𝑟23

(1.50 𝑥 10−5 𝐶)(5.00 𝑥 10−6 𝐶)

= 9 𝑥 109 𝑁. 𝑚2 /𝐶 2
(0.06 𝑚)2
= 187.5 𝑁

This force is also to the left.

F23 Q3
+
F13

The two forces acting on Q3 are both to the left.