NOTE ELECTRIC FIELD AND CHARGE

1- We know that when we add a positive number to a negative number of

the same magnitude, the sum is zero.

2- A simple apparatus to detect charge on a body is the gold-leaf

electroscope

3- Those which allow electricity to pass through them easily

are called conductors. They have electric charges (electrons) that are

comparatively free to move inside the material. Metals, human and animal

bodies and earth are conductors.

4- Most of the non-metals like glass,

porcelain, plastic, nylon, wood offer high resistance to the passage of

electricity through them. They are called insulators. Most substances

fall into one of the two classes stated above

5- When some charge is transferred to a conductor, it readily gets

distributed over the entire surface of the conductor.

6- If the sizes of charged bodies are very small as compared to the

distances between them, we treat them as point charges. All the

charge content of the body is assumed to be concentrated at one point

in space.

7 -Sometimes nature creates charged particles: a neutron turns

into a proton and an electron. The proton and electron thus created have

equal and opposite charges and the total charge is zero before and after

the creation.

8- The quantisation of charge was first suggested by the experimental laws of electrolysis discovered by
English experimentalist Faraday. It was experimentally demonstrated by

Millikan in 1912.
9 - there are about 6 × 1018 electrons in a charge of –1C.

10- A torsion balance is a sensitive device to measure force.

11- Since force is a vector, it is better to write

Coulomb’s law in the vector notation

12- Coulomb’s law agrees with the Newton’s third law

13 -The vector sum is obtained as usual by the parallelogram law of

addition of vectors. All of electrostatics is basically a consequence of

Coulomb’s law and the superposition principle.

14- the charge q also exerts an equal and opposite force on the

charge Q.

15- If we denote the position of charge q by the vector r, it

experiences a force F equal to the charge q multiplied by the electric

field E at the location of q

16- A way out of this difficulty is to

make q negligibly small. The force F is then negligibly small but the

ratio F/q is finite

17- the electric field E due to Q is also dependent on

the space coordinate r

18- The field exists at every point in three-dimensional space

19- For a positive charge, the electric field will be directed radially

outwards from the charge. On the other hand, if the source charge is

negative, the electric field vector, at each point, points radially inwards

20- the magnitude of the electric field E will also depend only on the

distance r. Thus at equal distances from the charge Q, the magnitude

of its electric field E is same.the point charge at its

centre it has a spherical symmetry

21- the accelerated motion of charge q1 produces electromagnetic waves