1.

1 Introduction
 In 6th century B.C. Thales observed that when an Amber rod was rubbed with
woolen cloth, the rod gets the property of attracting small dust particles, paper
pieces etc.
 Electricity was the name given to the energy due to which any matter gets the
property of attraction.
 Word electricity is derived from the word Electrum (Greek name of Amber).
 The branch of Physics which deals with the study of electric charges at rest is called
static electricity or electrostatics.

 The branch of Physics which deals with the study of electric charges in motion is
called current electricity.

The electricity which is produced due to friction or by rubbing one thing with the other
is called frictional electricity.
1.2 Electric Charge
Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force
when close to other electrically charged matter.

 Electric charge is a scalar quantity.

 There are two kinds of charges such as positive charge and negative charge.

 An object can attain positive charge by loosing electrons while other can attain
negative charge by gaining electrons.

 Charges with same sign, i.e. like charges repel each other while charges with
opposite sign, i.e. unlike charges attract each other.

 Charges always reside on the surface of the charged conducting object.

• If an object possesses an electric charge, it is said to be electrified or charged.

An uncharged conductor or insulator can be charged by following methods :

1. Charging by Physical Contact ( Electrification by conduction ) :

2. Charging by friction ( Frictional Electrification) :

 Electricity produced due to rubbing of two material under suitable conditions is known as
Frictional Electricity . When two material rubbed together get Electrified.
 One of the rubbed material loses electrons and become positively charged and the other
material gains these electrons and becomes negatively charged.
 No new charge is created in the process of rubbing of material.

The table below shows the pairs of objects which get charged on rubbing against each other.

Any two charged objects, in the same column will repel each other and any two charged objects from
different columns will attract each other.
3. Charging by induction ( Non Contact ):
The process of charging a neutral body by bringing a charged body nearby it without making
contact between the two bodies is known as charging by induction.
Charging of two spheres by Induction
 A simple apparatus to detect charge on a body is the gold-leaf electroscope.
 It consists of a vertical metal rod housed in a box, with two thin gold leaves attached
to its bottom end.
 When a charged object touches the metal knob at the top of the rod, charge flows
on to the leaves and they diverge.
 The degree of divergance is an indicator of the amount of charge.

Conductors and Insulators

 Conductors are those substances which can be used to carry or conduct electric
charge/electron from one point to other. They allow electricity to pass through them
easily. e.g. Silver, copper, iron, aluminium, etc.

 Insulators are those substances which cannot conduct electricity. They are also
called dielectrics. They offer high resistance to the passage of electricity through
them, e.g. Glass, rubber, plastic, ebonite, mica, etc.
Difference between Dielectrics and Conductors

 Dielectrics are non-conductors and do not have free electrons at all, while
conductors have free electrons in their any volume which makes them able to pass
the electricity through them.

 When some charge is transferred to a conductor, it readily gets distributed over the
entire surface of the conductor. In contrast, if some charge is put on an insulator, it
stays at the same place.
Question: A comb run through one’s hair attracts small bits of paper. What happens, if the
hairs are wet or it is a rainy day?
Sol. If the hairs are wet or it is a rainy day, then the friction between the hair and the comb
reduces. The comb does not get charged and it will not attract small bits of paper.

Basic Properties of Electric Charge

1.

Question: A system consists of charges +e , − 3e , 5e and − 7e. What will be the total charge
of the system?
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