Electric charge
charge/Elementary charge (Symbol e)
The origin of electricity
• The electrical nature of matter is
inherent (existing in something as a
permanent, essential, or characteristic
attribute) in atomic structure.
Atom – smallest unit into which matter can be
divided without the release of electrically
charged particles.
- the smallest unit of matter that has the
characteristic properties of a chemical
element.
- is the basic building block of matter.
Atom- consists of a small relatively massive
nucleus that contains particles called protons
and neutrons.
• A proton has a mass of 1.673 x 10-27 kg
• A neutron has a slightly greater mass of
1.675 x 10-27 kg
Electrons - surround the nucleus, a diffuse cloud
of orbiting particles.
• An electron has a mass of 9.11 x 10-31 kg
Electric charge- is an intrinsic (essential)
property of protons and electrons.
2 Types of Charges Discovered:
1. Positive
2. Negative
Proton- has a positive charge
Electron- has a negative charge
Neutron- has no net charge
Experiment reveals that the magnitude of the
charge on the proton exactly equals the charge
of the electron.
• Electron charge/Electric
have been determined experimentally
to have a value of e =1.60 x 10-19 C.
•The SI unit for measuring the magnitude of an
electric charge is the Coulomb (C).
• e -represents the magnitude of the
charge on a proton or an electron and
does not include the algebraic sign that
indicates whether the charge is positive
or negative.
• atoms are normally found with equal
numbers of protons and electrons.
• Electrically neutral- when an atom or
any object carries no net charge.
The charge on the electrons or a proton is
the smallest amount of free charge that has
been discovered.
Charges of larger magnitude are built up on
an object by adding or removing electrons.
Any charge of magnitude q is an integer (a
whole number) multiple on e, that is
q= Ne where N = an integer
• Any electric charge q occurs in integers,
multiples of elementary, invisible
charges of magnitude e, electric charge
is said to be quantized.
• Charging
In general, a material can be given a net charge
by adding or removing electrons.
General ways of charging:
•Triboelectric Charging- also known as charging
by friction or rubbing. One of the most common
methods of charging.
Examples: Glass rubbed with silk. Hard Rubbed
with fur.
The presence of different atoms in an object
provides different objects with different
electrical properties.
One property is known as:
electron affinity- refers to the relative
amount of love/close relationship that a
material has for electrons.
Charging by Induction
- a method used to charge an object without
touching the object to any other charged
object.
- requires understanding the nature of a
conductor and the polarization process.
Example: If a rubber balloon is charged
negatively (perhaps by rubbing it with animal
fur)
Electrostatic Charging
• Charging by rubbing is a phenomenon in
which friction transfers charged
particles from one body to another.
If two objects are rubbed together,
especially if the objects are insulators and
surrounding air is dry, the objects acquire
equal and opposite charges and an
attractive force develops between them.
The object that loses electrons becomes
positively charged.
The other that gains electrons becomes
negatively charged.
The force is simply the attraction between
charges of opposite sign.
Types of electric charges
• Each type of charge attracts the
opposite type but repels the same type.
This leads to the basic law of
electrostatics: Unlike charges attract,
like charges repel.
• The SI unit of electric charge is the
coulomb (C). It is a scalar quantity.
• Every electron has a charged of –1.6 x
10-19 C, and every proton has a charge of
+ 1.6 x 10-19 C.
Positively charged particles
In this type of particles, numbers of positive
ions are larger than the numbers of electrons.
To neutralize positively charged particles,
electrons from the surroundings come to this
particle until the number of protons and
electrons become equal.
Negatively charged particles
In this type of particles, numbers of negative
ions are larger than the numbers of positive
ions. In other words, numbers of electrons are
larger than the number of protons.
To neutralize negatively charged particles, since
protons can not move and can not come to
negatively charged particles, electrons move to
the ground or any other particle around itself.
Neutral Particles
These types of particles include equal numbers
of protons and electrons. Be careful, they have
both protons, neutrons and electrons. However,
numbers of “+” ions are equal to the numbers
of “-” ions.
Conductors
-matters that have lots of free electrons to
move.
- It is easy for electrons to flow from these
materials.
- Metals are good conductors.
Examples:
gold, copper, human bodies, acid, base and
salt solutions
 Insulators
- materials that do not let electrons flow.
Bonds of electrons in the insulators are tighter
than the conductors, thus, they can not move
easily.
Examples: Glass, ebonite(hard rubber) plastic,
wood and air.
• Atoms having same charge repel each
other and atoms having opposite
charges attract each other.
Types of Charging
• Charging by Friction
When you rub one material to another, they are
charged by friction. Material losing electron is
positively charged and material gaining electron
is negatively charged. Amount of gained and lost
electron is equal.
• Charging by Contact
Charging by conduction occurs when two objects
with different amounts electric charge come in
contact and electrons move from one object to
the other. There are equal number of electrons
and protons in a neutral matter. If something
changes this balance, we can say it is charged.
ELECTROSTATIC INDUCTION
-a process to produce static electricity in an
object by drawing near to an electrically charged
material. The former will cause the electrical
charges to be reallocated in the material that will
result in one side having an excess of either
positive (+) or negative (-) charges.
Electrostatic induction or Induction charging
• is a method used to charge an object
without touching. This method will
cause the redistribution of electrical
charges on a material.
ELECTROSTATIC INDUCTION IN
CONDUCTORS
• Electrostatic induction is most effective
when materials are conductors just like
metals.
• Metals are good conductors. In
electrostatic induction, once you
remove the electrically charged object,
the conductor loses its charge.
Temporarily grounding the conductor
must be done to solve this phenomenon.
Electrical conductors in neutral state has an
equal number of (+) and negative (-) electrical
charges.
Equal number of positive ions and negative ions
and electrons interacts within the conducting
material.
• When an static electrically charged is
brought near to an electrical conductor,
the electrical charges on or near the
surface of the electrically charged object
attracts the opposite charges in the
conductor and repel the like charges.
The law of attraction and repulsion
-is observed in this phenomenon. Unlike charges
attract, therefore a positive charge(+) will attract
a negative charge(-). Like charges repel,
therefore a negative charge (-) will repel a
negative charge (-) and vice versa.
ELECTROSCOPE- an instrument used to detect
the presence of electric charge on a body. It
detects charge by the movement of a test object
due to the Coulomb electrostatic force on it.
• Electrostatic induction-also applicable
in electroscope.
• If you draw near a charged object such
as the plastic rod near an electroscope,
the opposite charges will move toward
the metal end of an electroscope.
 ELECTROSTATIC INDUCTION IN NON-
CONDUCTORS
Non-conductors or insulators can undergo also
the process of electrostatic induction.
These non-conductors can be given static
selectic charge nevertheless electrostatic
induction in non-conducting materials is least
effective because the movement of charge is
constant.
In a nonconductor, separation of charged
particles does not work because electrons are
constrained.
Nevertheless, if the nonconductor consists of
polar molecules, the electrostatic induction
maybe possible.
• The latter will cause the molecules to be with
positive charges (+) and the other side with
negative charges (-).
• Polar molecules are molecules that has one
side more positive than the other side.
COLOUMB’S LAW
Coulomb’s Law-also known as Coulomb’s
inverse-square law.
- measures the amount of force between
stationary charged particles.
Discovered by French physicist Charles-Augustin
de Coulomb in 1785.
- very significant in the progress of
electricity and magnetism since it
quantifies electrical charges.
The unit for charge is Coulomb (C) in honor to
the proponent of the law.
Coulomb force - extremely basic
- Most charges are due to point charge-
like particles.
- Responsible for all electrostatic effects
and underlies most macroscopic forces.
Electric force between two subatomic particles is
far greater than the gravitational force between
the same two particles.
When dealing with charged objects or charges,
we also talk of forces between them.
-Forces can be attractive for unlike charges and
repulsive force for like charges.
To find the force for charges, we can employ
the Coulomb’s Law.
𝑘𝑞1𝑞2
In Equation:
𝑑2
Where: F = electrical force
q1 = charge of the first object or particle
q2 = charge of the second object or particle
d = distance between the charged objects
k = constant equal to 9 x 10 9 Nm2/C2
F α q1 (If the charge of an object is doubled, the
electrical force is also doubled.)
F α q1 q2 (If the charge of an object or particles
doubled, the electrical force is quadrupled.)
Fα1 (If the distance of the two charges are
2
d doubled, the electrical force are
quartered.)
Coulomb’s Law calculates the magnitude of the
force F between two point charges q1 and q2
separated by a distance d.
Electrostatic Force- a vector quantity expressed
in units Newton (N).
It is apparent that the electrostatic force
between any two points is directly proportional
to the product of the magnitude of the charges
and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance to the square of the distance between
them.
 ELECTRIC FIELD
- A region of space in which an electric charge
will experience a force.
- The direction of the field at a point in space
is the direction in which a positive test charge
would move if placed at that point.
REPRESENTING ELECTRIC FIELDS
- Represent the strength and direction of an
electric field at a point using electric field lines.
-This is similar to representing magnetic fields
around magnets using magnetic field lines.
POSITIVE CHARGE ACTING ON A TEST CHARGE
- The magnitude of
the force that a test
charge experiences
due to another
charge is governed by
COULOMB’S LAW.
Each point around the positive charge, +Q, we
calculate the force of a positive test charge, +q,
would experience , and represent this force (a
vector) with an arrow.
Coulomb’s Law is a inverse –square law which
means that the force gets weaker the greater
the distance between the two charges.
NEGATIVE CHARGE ACTING ON A TEST CHARGE
For a negative charge, -Q, and a positive test
charge, +q, the force vectors would look like:
The arrows point
in the opposite
direction because
the charges have
opposite signs
and attract each
other.
ELECTRIC FIELDS AROUND ISOLATED CHARGES
- continuous lines that are tangential to the
force that a test charge would experience at
each point.
- the field lines are closer together where the
field is stronger.
- close to the central charges, the field lines are
close together. This is where the electric field is
strongest. Further away from the central
charges where the electric field is weaker, the
field lines are more spread from each other.
We use the following conventions when
drawing electric field lines:
● Arrows on the field lines indicate the direction
of the field.
●Electric field lines point away from positive
charges ( like charges repel) and towards
negative charges (unlike charges attract).
●Field lines are drawn closer together where
the field is stronger.
●Field lines do not touch or cross each other.
●Field lines are drawn perpendicular to a
charge or charged surface.
●The greater the magnitude of the charge, the
stronger its electric field.
Some important points to remember about
electric fields:
-There is an electric field at every point in space
surrounding a charge.
-Field lines are merely representation-they are
not real.
-Field lines exist in three dimensions.
-The number of field lines passing through a
surface is proportional to the charge contained
inside the surface.
 Electric fields around different charge
configurations
Electric fields around two unlike charges
The further from the positive charge, the
smaller the repulsive force, F+ (shorter orange
arrows) and the closer to the negative charge
the greater the attractive force, F- (longer blue
arrows).
Charges of different magnitudes
When the magnitudes are not equal the larger
charge will influence the direction of the field
lines more than if they were equal.
The larger charge gives rise to a stronger field
and therefore makes a larger relative
contribution to the force on a test charge than
the smaller charge.

The electric field line- the black line which is

tangential to the resultant forces and is a
straight line between the charges pointing from
the positive to the negative charge.

Positive test charge placed slightly higher than

the line joining the 2 charges.

The resulting electric field line, which is

tangential to the resultant force vectors, will be
a curve. COULOMB’S LAW: SUPERPOSITION PRINCIPLE
Electric field around two like charges (both The electrostatic force is directly proportional
positive) to the product of the magnitude of the two
point charges and is inversely proportional to
They cancel each other out and there is no
the square of the distance between the two
resultant force. This means that the electric
point charge.
field directly between the charges cancels out in
the middle. Coulomb’s law
has same
A test charge placed at this point would not
structure as
experience a force.
Newton’s law of
Electric field around two like charges (both gravitation. Both
negative) are inversely
proportional to
the square of the distance between particles.
The direction of the
electric field
produced by a point
charge is away from
the charge if the
charge is positive,
and toward the charge if the charge is negative.
Electric field is a vector, so when there are
multiple point charges present, the net electric field
at any point is the vector sum of the electric fields
due to the individual charges.
Faraday introduced the concept of the field. The
electric field intensity at any point is the strength of
the electric field at that point.
It is defined as the force experienced by a unit
positive charge at a particular point.
SUPERPOSITION PRINCIPLE
STEPS
STEP 1 Find the magnitudes of the 2 forces on
charge 2.
STEP 2 Find the x and y components of the 2
forces
STEP 3 Find the components of the net force on
charge 2
- Magnitudes of q1 & q3 due to q2:
- X and y components of q1 & q3 due to
q2
- Components of the net force on q2
STEP 4 Find the magnitude and direction of
the force on charge 2
Add 180° 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝜽 𝒕𝒂𝒏−𝟏
Gauss’s Law
•Carl Friedrich Gauss, a German scientist,
formulated a law which relates electric field,
electric flux and electric charge.
•Gauss’s Law states that:
-The electric flux through any closed surface is
equal to the charge enclosed by that surface
divided by the permittivity.
The total electric flux through a surface is the
total electric charge qtotal inside the surface
divided by permittivity E0.
In symbols:
𝑞𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙
Φtotal = EA cos ϴ =
𝐸0
E0 = permittivity of the surface
-permittivity of free space has an approximate
value of 8.8542 x 10-12 C2/N.m2
In integral form: Φ = ʃ E.dA
-Surface is the Gaussian surface.
Best of luck!
- chii