Advance Montessori Education Center of Isabela, Inc.

Maligaya, Tumauini, Isabela

Email: amecimontessori@gmail.com

GENERAL PHYSICS 2
THIRD QUARTER S
Learners Module 4,5,6
January 3-21, 2022 H
Name: ___________________________________
Grade and Section: ___________________________________ S
S.Y. 2021-2022

I. OVERVIEW
In this and the next two chapters, we focus on electric phenomena before moving on to describe magnetism in
Chapter 4. Electric and magnetic forces both act on electric charges and currents. Electric charges and currents also act
as sources of electric and magnetic fields. Electricity and magnetism are really a single unified phenomenon often
referred to as electromagnetism, and this unified picture leads to a theory of electromagnetic radiation. Light is a type
of electromagnetic radiation, so electromagnetism also forms the basis theory of optics, which is discussed in
Chapters 8 through 9. Our study of electricity and magnetism will thus take us a quite a long way.
II. LESSONS AND COVERAGE
Lesson 1: Evidence for electric forces: the observational facts
Lesson 2: Electric forces and Coulombs law
Lesson 3: The electric field
Learning Competencies
 Define electric forces;
 Differentiate electric froces from fields; and
 Explain the electric phenomena before moving on to describe magnetism.
LESSON 1: Evidence for Electric Forces: The observational Facts
The discovery of electricity is generally credited to the Greeks and is thought to have occurred around 2500
years ago, which is approximately the era in which Aristotle lived. The Greek observed electric charges and the forces
between them In variety of situations. Many of their observation made used of a material called amber, a plastic-like
substance formed by allowing the sap from a certain trees to dry and harden.
The Greek word amber, ‘elektron,” is the origin of the terms electricity and electron. The Greeks did not
discover electron; even though the notion of a small charge-carrying particle was hypothesized by a number of early
philosophers and scientists, there was no clear experimental demonstration of the existence of electron until the late
1880s.
 There are two types of electric charge, called positive and negative. The subatomic particle called proton has
a positive charge, and an electron has a negative charge.
What is electric Charge?
You are likely familiar with the term electric charge or simply charge. Charge is a fundamental property of
matter; the amount of charge that is “on” or “carried by” a particle determines how the particle reacts to electric and
magnetic fields. In many ways, it is similar to the quantity we call mass; the mass of a particle determines how it
reacts when a force acts on it. The mass of a particle is a measure of the amount of matter it carries, whereas the
charge of a aprticle is a measure of the amount of ‘electric-ness” it carries. Charge and mass are both primary entries
in our dictionary of physics terms, but it is not possible to give definitions for these fundamental entries in our
dictionary.
Conductors
 Electrons are free to move through the material
 Example – metals, graphite
Charge Induction
 Separation of charge by the influence of an electric field
 Action over a distance
 Charges can be induced on insulators and conductors

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 Charge Induction in Conductors
 A charged object can induce
a charge in a conductor.
 The separation of charges is
called charge polarization.
 Causes an attractive
polarization force.

Charge Induction in Insulator

 An external charge displaces the electron cloud around an atom
 Causes a net attractive force
 Creates an electric dipole - equal charges separated by small distance
Electric Charge Model
 Two types of material
-Conductors – charge moves easily through
-Insulators – charges are stuck
 Charge is conserved – just like Energy and Momentum
 Charge is quantized – it comes in multiples of small units (-1.6x10 -19 Coulombs)
What is the Electric Force ?
 One of the fundamental forces of nature (like gravity)
 Like charges repel, unlike charges attract
 Proportional to amount of electric charge
 Decreases with distance between charges
 Strength and direction are quantified by Coulomb's Law
Coulomb's Law
 The force between two charged bodies
q1 q2
F=k
r2
F is the force between two charges, Q1 and Q2, separated by a distance r2. K is the Electrostatic
Constant (9.0x109 Nm2/C2).

Example: Suppose you are given a box holding g (0.001 kg) of pure electrons. The mass of a single electron is m e =
9.11 x10-31 kg, so the total number of electrons Ne in the box is
−3
1 x 10 kg
N e= −3
=1.1 x 1027
9.11 x 10 1 kg /electron

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 Qtotal=N e ( −e )=( 1.1 x 10 27) ( − 1.60 x 10−19 C ) =−1.8 x 108 C
Suppose there are two of these boxes, each with charge Qtotal, separated by a distance r = 1 m, and we assume
each box is small so that it can be modelled as a point particle. The magnitude of the total electric force is

F=k
Qtotal Qtotal
=
( 9.0 x 109 N .
m2
C2)(
9.0 x 109
N .
m2
C2 )
r2 (1m)
2

26
F=3.6 x 10 N

What is an Electric Field ?

It is a concept used to describe how electric forces will act on a
charged particle in space. Cpu;pmbs’ law gives the electric force
between a pair of charges, but there is another way to describe electric
forces. Imagine a single isolated point charge, that is, a point charge very
far from any other charges. The presence of this charge produces an
electric field. The electric field is a vector – it has a magnitude and a
→
direction – and is denoted by E .
 Lines follow the path of a freely moving positive charge
 Originate at positive charge
 Terminate at negative charges
Even more on electric fields higher density of lines means higher field. Field lines cannot cross. Unlike
charges attract while, Like charges repel.

Electric Field, E, Strength and Direction

Defined as the force on a positive unit charge, or force per unit charge.Units are Newtons per Coulomb (N/C).
The electric force is thus either parallel to E. (if q is positive) or anti parallel (if q is negative). The charge q is called a
test charge. By measuring the force on a test charge, we can infer the magnitude and direction of the electric field at
the location of the test charge. Because force is measured un units of newtons (N) and charge in coulombs (C), the
electric field has units of newtons/coulombs.
The electric field E is related to electric force, so we can use a coulombs law calculation of the force to find
the electric field in many situations. For example, lets calculate the electric field a distance r from the charge Q. Here
q is the test charge, and we want to calculate the electric field produced by Q. According to Coulombs law, the
magnitude of the electric force exerted on the test charge q is
kQq
F=
r2
Inserting this expression into our relation for the electric field gives
kQq
F= =qE
r2
Which leads to
kQ
E= 2
r
Electric field between “Infinite” parallel plates in a
vacuum
Very large plates each with charges +Q and Q, with a small
gap relative to the area of the plates

Electric field between “Infinite” parallel plates in a

vacuum

Note: The Electric field is independent of the

distance between the plates

Conductors and Electric Fields

Charge moves freely within conductors

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The excess charges will repel each other to reach a stable equilibrium
The charges collect at the surface of the object, and spread out.
Charges move so that the field lines are always perpendicular to the surface of the conductor

Electric Field inside conductors

Any charge inside a conductor would move to cancel out
any electric field. The electric field inside a conductor is
therefore always ZERO after it has reached electrostatic
equilibrium
Are charges spread evenly on the surface of a
conductor?
 Not necessarily
 Depends on the shape

 Tend to accumulate near the “pointy” ends.

Conductors inside Electric

Fields
 The charges inside a conductor in
an electric field will flow to reach
static equilibrium – until the field
inside the conductor is ZERO.
 Called a Faraday cage
Example Faraday cages
 Microwave ovens
 Antistatic bags for computer
memory
 Shields on co-axial cable

ELECTRIC FLUX AND GAUSS’S LAW

We can calculate the electric field due to a point charge. In principle, we can use this result to deal with any
conceivable distribution of charges by treating the distribution as a collection of point of charges and using
superposition to find the total field. Fortunately, there is a simpler way to deal with a complex change distributions,
based on Gauss’s Law. To explain Gauss’s law, we must first define a quantity called the electric flux. In words, we
say that there is an electric field lines pass through the surface. In the simplest case, with the electric field directed
perpendicular to the surface, the magnitude of the flux is the product of the electric field and the area of the surface.
Electric flux is denoted by the symbol Φ E .

Gauss’s Law

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 Gauss’s law asserts that the electric flux through any closed surface is proportional to the total charge q inside
the surface, with
q
ΦE=
ε0
The constant of proportionality that relates flux and chargre is ε 0, the same physical constant that enters the
Coulomb’s law.
Using Gauss’s Law to find E for a point charge
Lets first consider the familiar case of a single point charge. To apply Gauss’s law we must first choose the
surface, called Gaussioan surface, that will be used in the flux calculation. When E is perpendicular to a surface, the
flux is equal to the magnitude of E multiplied by the area of the surface. So, for the flux we have,
Φ E =EA spℎere
Where Asphere is the area of our spherical Gaussian surface. If the radius of this sphere is r, then Asphere = 4πr2
Φ E =4 π r 2 E
According to Gauss’s law, this flux is proportional to the total charge contained within the surface. We have
q
Φ E =4 π r 2 E=
ε0
We can now solve for E and find
q
E= 2
4 πε 0 r
Which agrees with our previous result obtained using
Coulomb’s law. The key to this application of Gauss’s law was our choice of the Gaussian Surface. This choice made
the calculation of Φ E straightforward because E has the same value over the entire surface and the electric fields
direction is always perpendicular to the surface.
Example
Consider the uniform spherical ball of charge with total charge Q and radius rb. find the electric field at points
outside the ball.
Solution:
Calculate the electric flux through our chosen Gaussian Surface. The Gaussian surface is a sphere of radius r,
so its surface area is A sphere = 4πr2. Denoting the magnitude of the electric field on the sphere by E and again noting
that E is everywhere perpendicular to the surface, the electric flux is
2
Φ E =EA spℎere =4 π r E
Gauss’s law relates this flux to the total charge contained within the spherical surface. We are interested in
location outside the ball (r > rb), so the charge inside the Gaussian surface is the total charge Q of the ball. We thus
have
2 q
Φ E =4 π r E=
ε0
Which leads to
Q
E=
4 π ε0 r2
Since 1/(4 π ε 0 ¿=k ,we can also write this result as
kQ
E=
r2
ACTIVITY 1
Directions:Solve and answer the following problem.
1. Consider a soot particle of mass msoot = 1.0 nanogram (=1.0 x 10-9 g = 1.0 x 10-12 kg), which corresponds to a
diameter of a few microns. Some number of electrons have been added to give the particle a total charge qsoot,
suppose the collector has a total charge of qcollector = 1.0 x 10-6 C and is small enough to be treated as a point
charge at the rim of the smokestack. (a) if the separation between the collector and the soot particle is r = 0.10
m, what is the value of qsoot so that the electric force exerted on the particle is equal to its weight? (b) How
many electrons must be added to the soot particle?
2. Two point charges with Q1 = 4.0µC and Q2 = - 2.0 µC are arranged. If L = 3.0 cm, what is the electric field at
the origin?
3. Consider again a soot particle of mass msoot = 1.0 x 10-12 kg that travels upward in smokestack. The scrubber in
item number 1 added 69 electrons to the particle, giving it a charge of qsoot = 1.1 x 10 -17C. assume the electric
field in the scrubber is produced by two parallel, square plates of width L = 1.0 m and separation d = 0.010 m,

General Physics 1 I 5
 with charges ±Q. (a) What must be the value of the electric field between the plates so that the force on the
soot particle is equal to the weight of the particle? (a real scrubber would use a collection of many pairs of
such a plates in parallel.) (b) What charge Q on the scrubbers plates is required to produce the electric field in
part (a)?
4. When a glass rod is rubbed with silk, the rod becomes positively charged. Suppose you have a charged object
but don’t know whether its charge is positive or negative. Explain how you could use a glass rod and piece of
silk to determine the sign of the unknown charge on the object.
5. Explain how two objects can be attracted due to an electric force, even when both objects have zero net
charge.
6. The end of a charged rubber rod will attract a small pellets of Styrofoam that, having made contact with the
rod, will move violently away from it. Describe why that happens.
7. Under normal atmospheric conditions, the surface of the earth is negatively charged. What is the direction of
the electric field near the earth surface?
8. When two objects (such as a glass rod and a silk cloth) are rubbed together, electrons can be transferred from
one to the other. Can protons also be transferred? Why or why not?
9. What is the magnitude of the electric force between two electrons separated by a distance of 0.10nm
(approximately the diameter of an atom)?
10. Two particles with electric charges Q and -3Q are separated by a distance of 1.2m. (a) 9f Q =4.5 C, what is the
electric force between two particles? (b) if Q = -4.5 C, how does the answer change?
11. Two point charges are separated by distance r. if the separation is reduced by a factor of 1.5, by what factor
does the electric force between them change?
12. Consider an electron and a proton separated by a distance of 1.0nm. (a) what is the magnitude of the
gravitational force between them? (b) What is the magnitude of the electric force between them? (c) How
would the ratio of these gravitational and electric forces change if the distance were increased to 1.0m?
13. What is the magnitude of the electric field at a distance of 1.5 m from a point charge with Q = 3.5 C?
14. The mass of a typical car is m = 1000 kg, so its weight on the earth surface is mg = 9800N. Suppose you have
two containers, one with N electrons and other with N protons. These two containers are placed a distance
10m apart, and the electric force between them is equal to the weight of the car. Find N?
15. An electric dipole is enclosed in a spherical surface. What is the electric flux through the surface?

NOTE: For further clarification/s about the lesson, you can contact the teacher at 09354451455.

REFERENCES:
1. Grade11Physics Module 1pp.15-17
2. Module One (pdf) pp.6-7
3. General Physics 1 (Application)
4. https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Analytical_Chemistry/
Supplemental_Modules_(Analytical_Chemistry)/Quantifying_Nature/Significant_Digits/
Uncertainties_in_Measurements
5. Chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Analytical_Chemistry/Supplemental_Module_(Analytical_Chemistry)/
Quantiying_Nature/Significant_Digits/Uncertainties_in_Measurements
Prepared by: Checked by: Recommending Approval:

NAIZA B. ALAMAN ALEX G. SORIANO JUDELYN A.PARUNGAO

Science Teacher Subject Coordinator Head, SHS Dep’t.
Approved by: Noted by:
JERIC T. VALDEZ NELIA Z-ANGULUAN, PhD
School Principal School Director

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