9th Grade Physics

Unit 6: Electrostatics

Fundamental Concepts

Electricity (Elektrik)
Electric Charge (Elektrik yükü)
Conductors (İletkenler)
Insulators (Yalıtkanlar)
Charging (Elektriklenme)
Charging by Contact (Dokunma ile elektriklenme)
Charging by Induction (Etki ile elektriklenme)
Charge Polarization (Yüklerin kutuplanması)
Charge Distribution (Yük dağılımı)
Charge Conservation (Yük korunumu)
Electric Field (Elektrik alan)
Electric Force (Elektriksel kuvvet)
Coulomb’s Law (Coulomb Yasası)

LIGHTNING ROD
The pointed lightning rod conductor, also called a lightning attractor or Franklin rod, was invented
by Benjamin Franklin in 1749 as part of his groundbreaking exploration of electricity. Although not
the first to suggest a correlation between electricity and lightning, Franklin was the first to propose a
workable system for testing his hypothesis.

A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect
the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it will preferentially strike the rod
and be conducted to ground through a wire, instead of passing through the structure, where it could
start a fire or cause electrocution. Lightning rods are also called finials, air terminals or strike
termination devices.
In a lightning protection system, a lightning rod is a single component of the system. The lightning rod
requires a connection to earth to perform its protective function. Lightning rods come in many
different forms, including hollow, solid, pointed, rounded, flat strips or even bristle brush-like. The
main attribute common to all lightning rods is that they are all made of conductive materials, such as

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copper and aluminum. Copper and its alloys are the most common materials used in lightning
protection.

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9. SINIF ÜNİTE, KONU, KAZANIM VE AÇIKLAMALARI

9.6. ELEKTROSTATİK
Kavramlar: elektrik yükü, birim yük, elektrikle yüklenme, yük korunumu, iletken, yalıtkan, yük
dağılımı, elektriksel kuvvet, elektrik alan.

9.6.1. ELEKTRİK YÜKLERİ

9.6.1.1. Elektrikle yüklenme çeşitlerini örneklerle açıklar.
a) Yük, birim yük ve elektrikle yüklenme kavramları verilir.
b) Elektrikle yüklenmede yüklerin korunumlu olduğu vurgulanmalıdır.
c) Elektroskopun yük cinsinin tayininde kullanılmasına örnekler verilir.

9.6.1.2. Elektriklenen iletken ve yalıtkanlarda yük dağılımlarını karşılaştırır.

a) Öğrencilerin karşılaştırmayı deneyler yaparak veya simülasyonlar kullanarak yapmaları sağlanır.
b) Faraday kafesi, kullanım alanları ve önemi açıklanır.
c) Topraklama olayı açıklanarak günlük hayattaki öneminden bahsedilir.

9.6.1.3. Elektrik yüklü cisimler arasındaki etkileşimi açıklar.

a) Deneyler veya simülasyonlardan yararlanılarak elektrik yüklü cisimler arasındaki etkileşimin
(Coulomb Kuvveti) bağlı olduğu değişkenler arasındaki ilişkiyi belirlemeleri sağlanır.
Matematiksel model verilir.
b) Yüklerin etkileşimi ile ilgili matematiksel hesaplamalara girilmez.

9.6.1.4. Elektrik alan kavramını açıklar.

Elektrik alan kavramı ile elektriksel kuvvet arasındaki ilişki açıklanır ve matematiksel model verilir.
Matematiksel hesaplamalara girilmez.

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Electricity
Electricity is general term for electrical phenomena,
much like gravity has to do with gravitational
phenomena, or sociology with social phenomena.
Electron Affinity
It is usually expressed in units of kJ/mol.
Nonmetals typically have higher electron affinity
values than metals. The value may be either
positive or negative. A negative electron affinity
means energy must be input in order to attach an
electron to the ion. Here, electron capture is an
endothermic process. If electron affinity is positive,
the process is exothermic and occurs
spontaneously. The primary use of electron affinity
values is to determine whether an atom or molecule
will act as an electron acceptor or an electron donor
and whether a pair of reactants will participate in
charge-transfer reactions.
Electric Charge
Electric charge is fundamental electrical property
to which the mutual interactions or repulsions
between protons or electrons is attributed. The unit
of charge is the coulomb(C). Negative charge
resides on particles called electrons and positive
charge resides on protons, which exist in the nuclei
of atoms. In solid bodies the motion of electric
charge is brought about by the motion of electrons,
but in liquids and gases (i.e. fluids) positive ions
can also transport charge.
Charge is conserved:
A very important property of electric charge is that
it is conserved. That is, the total charge of an
isolated system cannot change. Like total energy,
electric charge cannot be created or destroyed. It is
believed that the total charge of the universe is zero,
in other words, there is exactly as much positive
charge as there is negative.
Charge is quantized:
Another important property of electric charge is
that it is quantized, which means the charge on a
body is always an integral multiple of a basic unit.
An Electron or a proton carries the smallest unit of
electric charge ( ).
NOTE: Quarks, particles found in protons and
neutrons, carry charges that are 1/3 or 2/3 of the
electron charge. However, these particles cannot be
observed as free particles so electron can still be
thought of as the carrier of the smallest unit of
charge.
1. Why objects with vast amounts of
electrons are normally not electrically charged?
2. Will a penny be slightly more massive if it
has an access of negative charge or a positive
charge?
Conductor
Conductor is any material having free charged
particles that easily flow through it when electric
force acts on them.
3. Why are the tires for trucks carrying
gasoline and other flammable fluids
manufactured to be electrically conducting?
4. Does a conductor have resistance?
5. Why do petrol road tankers usually have a
length of metal chain hanging down to touch
the ground?
6. How is electricity conducted in solids,
liquids and gases?
Insulator
Insulator is any material, such as rubber, glass, and
lucite without free charged particles and through
which charge do not easily flow.
7. Touching the ball on top of a charge
electroscope with either your finger or metal
rod causes the electroscope to discharge.
Touching it with an uncharged glass rod
produces no effect. Why?
8. Does glass always behave as insulator in
all conditions?
Static Electricity
Static electricity is the imbalance of positive and
negative charges.
Electroscope
An electroscope is an instrument for detecting the
presence and relative amount of static electricity.

9. When the charged body is touched on
metal disc, the leaves that normally hang
straight down spread apart. Why?
Charging
Charging is transferring electrons from one place to
another.
10. Why is charge usually transferred by
electrons rather than by protons?
Charging By Contact (Friction)
Charging by contact is transfer of electric charges
between objects by rubbing or simple touching.
Using the convention suggested by Franklin, the
electric charge on the charged glass rod is called
positive, and on the charged rubber rod is called
negative. Therefore, any charged body that is
attracted to charged rubber (or repelled by a
charged glass rod) must have a positive charge.
Charging By Induction
If you bring a charged object near a conducting
surface, you will cause electrons to move in the
surface material even though there is no physical
contact. Consider the two insulated metal spheres,
A and B. (a) They touch each other, so in effect
they form a single non-charged conductor. (b)
When a negatively charged rod is brought near A,
electrons in the metal, being free to move, are
repelled as far as possible until their mutual
repulsion is big enough to balance the influence of
the rod. Charge is redistributed. (c) If A and B are
separated while the rod is still present, (d) they will
each be equal and oppositely charged. This is
charging by induction. The charged rod has never
touched them, and it retains the same charge it had
initially.
Charging by induction occurs during
thunderstorms. The negatively charged
bottoms of clouds induce a positive
charge on the surface of the Earth
below. Benjamin Franklin was the first
to demonstrate this when his famous
kite-flying experiment proved that
lightning is an electrical phenomenon. Lightning is
an electrical discharge between a cloud and the
oppositely charged ground or between oppositely
charged parts of clouds.
11. How can you charge an object negatively
with only the help of a positively charged
object?
12. How can charged object attract a neutral
object?
13. What causes the
hairs to repel each other
when combed on a dry
winter day?
14. Why does a piece of plastic refuse to leave
your hand after you peeled it off a package?
15. We can charge ebonite (glass) rod by
rubbing it with fur (silk) fabrics. Can we
charge iron with same process?
Charge Polarization
Charging by induction is not restricted to
conductors. When a charged rod is brought
near an insulator, there are no free electrons
that can migrate throughout the insulating
material. Instead, there is a rearrangement of
charges within the atoms and molecules
themselves. Although atoms don't move from
their relatively fixed positions, their “centers
of charge” are moved. One side of the atom
or molecule is induced into becoming more
negative (or positive) than the opposite side.
The atom or molecule is said to be electrically
polarized. The following figures explain how
a charged comb attracts an uncharged piece of
paper and how a negatively charged balloon
sticks to the wall.
 16. Draw the charge distribution of the Electrons from the lightning bolt mutually repel to
following objects. the outer metal surface. Although the electric field
they set up may be great outside the car, the net
electric field inside the car is zero.

18. Would it be better for us if we were in a

very good insulator rather than in a good
conductor (for example in a metal sphere) to
protect ourselves from the damage of
Negatively lightning?
charged Negatively 19. Is it possible for a conductor to be charged
Positively Positively charged
conductor locally? What about for an insulator? Why?
charged charged prism doughnut-
20. How does Faraday Cage works?
conductor insulator shaped
sphere sphere conductor
Electrical force
Electrical force is the force that one charge exerts
on another. When the charges are the same sign,
Grounding they repel; when the charges are opposite, they
Grounding is allowing charges to move freely along attract.
a connection from a conductor to the ground
(Earth).
17. What are the importance of grounding for
electricity?

Electric Shielding 21. 5x1021 freely moving electrons in a penny

An important difference between electric and
gravitational fields is that electric fields can be
shielded by various materials, while gravitational
fields cannot. Consider, for example, electrons on a
spherical metal ball. Because of mutual repulsion
the electrons will spread out uniformly over the
outer surface of the ball.
If the conductor is not spherical, then the charge
distribution will not be uniform. Most of the charge
on a conducting cube, for example, is mutually
repelled toward the corners. The remarkable thing
is this: The exact charge distribution over the
surface of a conductor is such that the electric field
everywhere inside the conductor is zero. Look at it
this way. If there were an electric field inside a
conductor, then free electrons inside the conductor
would be set in motion. How far would they move?
Until equilibrium is established—which is to say,
when the positions of all the electrons produce a
zero field inside the conductor.
repel one another. Why do not they fly out of
the penny?
Coulomb’s Law
The electrical force, like gravitational force,
decreases inversely as the square of the distance
between interacting bodies. This relationship was
discovered by Charles Coulomb in the eighteenth
century and is called Coulomb's law. It states that
for two charged objects that are much smaller than
the distance between them (which is the condition
that both objects can be assumed to be as particle),
the force between the two objects varies directly as
the product of their charges and inversely as the
square of the separation distance.
where r is the distance
between the center of
charged particles, q1
represents the quantity of
charge of one particle, q2
represents the quantity of
charge of the other particle,
and k is the proportionality
constant. The proportionality constant k in charge would experience at the given point. The
Coulomb's law is similar to G in Newton's law of unit of electric filed is N/C.
gravitation. Instead of being a very small number
like G (6.67 × 10−11), the electrical proportionality
constant k is a very large number. It is
approximately 9 × 109 N·m2/C2 for vacuum. If the
charges are alike in sign, the force is repulsive; if
the charges are unlike, the force is attractive.

28. Why is the magnitude of electrical field

The value of k depends on the medium in which the zero midway between identical point charges?
charges lie. It is inversely related to electric
permittivity of the medium.
Electric Field Lines
A very useful model in dealing with electric fields
is that of electric field lines. These are imaginary
where ε is the permittivity of the medium. lines (curved or straight) with the property that the
tangent to a field line at any point gives the
Two positive charges exert equal (in magnitude) direction of the electric field at that point. By a
but oppositely directed forces upon one another, convention the lines start on positive charges and
according to Coulomb’s Law and Newton’s Third end on negative charges, the density of the lines is
Law of Motion. proportional to the strength of the field. In addition,
22. When do charging come to the end among the density of the lines at a given point (i.e. the
two or more different charged objects? number of lines crossing a small area centered at
23. What are the similarities and differences the point) is proportional to the magnitude of the
between Coulomb’s law and Newton’s law of electric field at that point. Following figures show
gravitation? the field lines for various arrangements of charges.
Consider two people, each of mass 60 kg, a
distance of 10 m apart. Assume that all the mass in
each person is made out of water.
24. Estimate the electrostatic force of
repulsion the two people due to the electrons.
25. What other simplifying assumption have
you made to make your estimate possible?
26. No such force is observed in practice.
Why?
27. Does electrical force depend on medium
between two charges?

Electric Field
Electric field is an area around a charged particle
that fills the space around every electric charge or
group of charges in which forces of attraction or
repulsion to another charged particle are noticeable.
It is measured by force per charge (newtons /
coulomb).
29. Can you estimate the sign of the charges?
What about magnitude, can you compare the
magnitude of the paired point charges?
E = F/q ;E=

Note that electric field is a vector, its direction

being the same as that of the force a positive test
 33. Draw the electric field lines for the
following point charges.

30. Is the ring on the right hand side a

conductor or an insulator? Explain your 34. Measurement show that there is an electric
reasoning. field surrounding the Earth. It is magnitude is
about 150 N/C at Earth’s surface, and it points
31. Why do you think there are no field lines
inward the Earth’s center. From this
inside the ring? information, can you state whether the Earth is
32. How does the ring change the electric field negatively or positively charged?
lines of the charged plate? Why?

References and Suggested Reading

Aydoğdu, Y. & Dedeoğlu E. (2014). Ortaöğretim Fizik 10 Ders Kitabı. ADA Yayınları.

Griffith, W. T. & Brosing, J. W. (2009). The Physics of Everyday Phenomena: A conceptual

Introduction to Physics (Sixth ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Hewitt, P. G. (2006). Conceptual Physics (10th ed.). San Francisco: Pearson Addison Wesley.

Tsokos, K. A. (2008). Physics for IB Diploma (Fifth ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Young, H. D. & Freedman, R. A. (2012). Sears and Zemansky’s University Physics: with Modern
Physics (13th ed.) Boston: Addison Wesley.

Suggested Teaching/Learning Materials

Electric Field Hockey,
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=Electric_Field_Hockey
Charges and Fields,
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=Charges_and_Fields
John Travoltage,
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=John_Travoltage

Suggested Assessment Tools

None

Misconceptions about Electrostatics

1. Students think that both charges are free to move from one object to another.
2. Students think that charge is created.
3. Students use (+) to present extra charge and (-) to present missing charge.
4. Students represent neutral by a negative symbol and the condition of being charged by a
positive symbol.
5. Students think that two statically charged objects repel or attract each other.
 6. Students think that each object is predestined to become a particular charge but the pre-
existing charges are dormant before the objects are rubbed. During rubbing, dormant charges
are activated.
7. Students think that each object contains either positive or negative charges only.
8. Students think that during statically charging, one type of charge comes to the surface of one
object, leaving the other type of charge in the center of the object.
9. Students think that static electricity is caused by friction.
10. Students think that during statically charging, positive charges from one object and negative
charges from the other object are exchanged.
11. Students think that nothing would happen when an un-rubbed object was brought close to a
rubbed object.
12. Students think that when a charged object is brought close to an uncharged object, charges
from the charged object are transferred to the uncharged one.
13. Students think that during charging by contact, the uncharged object is statically charged with
the opposite charge of the charged object.
14. Students think that during rubbing, two objects are statically charged with the same kind of
charge.
15. Students think that oppositely charged objects repel, the same charged objects attract each
other.

Misconceptions about Electric Fields and Forces

1. If a charge is not on a field line, it feels no force.
2. Field lines are real.
3. Coulomb's law applies to charge systems consisting of something other than point
charges.
4. The electric field and force are the same thing and in the same direction.
5. Field lines can begin/end anywhere.
6. There are a finite number of field lines.
7. Fields don't exist unless there is something to detect them.
8. Forces at a point exist without a charge there.
9. The electric force is the same as the gravitational force.
10. Field lines exist only in two dimensions.