FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS 2

(FISIKA 2)
TOPIC:
Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Mariyanto, S.Si. M.T.

Department of Geophysical Engineering
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Electric Charge
• The two glass rods were ea
ch rubbed with a silk cloth a
nd one was suspended by t
hread. When they are close
to each other, they repel ea
ch other.

• The plastic rod was rubbed

with fur. When brought clos
e to the glass rod, the rods
attract each other.

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 Electric Charge
• After a great many investigations, scientists figur
ed out that the forces in these types of demonstr
ations are due to the electric charge that we set
up on the rods when they are in contact with silk
or fur.
• Electric charge is an intrinsic property of the fun
damental particles that make up objects such as
the rods, silk, and fur. That is, charge is a proper
ty that comes automatically with those particles
wherever they exist.

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 Electric Charge
• The strength of a particle’s electrical intera
ction with objects around it depends on its
electric charge (usually represented as
q), which can be either positive or negativ
e.

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 Two Types
• There are two types of electric charge, na
med by the American scientist and states
man Benjamin Franklin as positive charge
and negative charge.

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• Particles with the same si
gn of electrical charge re
pel each other, and particl
es with opposite signs att
ract each other.

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 Neutral charge
• In most everyday objects, such as a mug, t
here are about equal numbers of negativel
y charged particles and positively charged
particles, and so the net charge is zero, th
e charge is said to be balanced, and the o
bject is said to be electrically neutral (or ju
st neutral for short).

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 Excess charge
• An object with equal amounts of the two ki
nds of charge is electrically neutral, where
as one with an imbalance is electrically ch
arged and has an excess charge.

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Two of the grand mysteries in physic
s are
• (1) why does the universe have particles w
ith electric charge (what is it, really?) and
• (2) why does electric charge come in two t
ypes (and not, say, one type or three type
s).

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 Conductors and Insulators
• Conductors are materials in which a signi
ficant number of electrons are free to mov
e. The charged particles in nonconductor
s (insulators) are not free to move.

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 Charged Particles
• The properties of conductors and insulator
s are due to the structure and electrical nat
ure of atoms.
• Atoms consist of positively charged proton
s, negatively charged electrons, and electri
cally neutral neutrons.
• The protons and neutrons are packed tight
ly together in a central nucleus.

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 Induced Charge
• A neutral copper rod is electrically isolated
from its surroundings by being suspended
on a nonconducting thread.
• Either end of the copper rod will be attract
ed by a charged rod.
• Here, conduction electrons in the copper r
od are repelled to the far end of that rod b
y the negative charge on the plastic rod.
• Then that negative charge attracts the rem
aining positive charge on the near end of t
he copper rod, rotating the copper rod to b
ring that near end closer to the plastic rod.

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 Coulomb’s Law
• Coulomb’s law describes
the electrostatic force (or
electric force) between t
wo charged particles.

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 Vector of electric force
• The electrostatic force on particle 1 can be
described in terms of a unit vector rˆ along
an axis through the two particles, radially a
way from particle 2.

• Can you derive such equation above again

using vector rule?

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 Compare!
• Newton’s Law for gravitational force.

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 Multiple Forces
• The electrostatic force obeys the principle
of superposition. Suppose we have n char
ged particles near a chosen particle called
particle 1; then the net force on particle 1 i
s given by the vector sum:

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 Charge Is Quantized
• Any positive or negative charge q that can
be detected can be written as:

• in which e, the elementary charge, has th

e approximate value:

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The Charges of Three
Particles

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 Charge Is Conserved
• If you rub a glass rod with silk, a positive c
harge appears on the rod. Measurement s
hows that a negative charge of equal mag
nitude appears on the silk.
• This suggests that rubbing does not create
charge but only transfers it from one body
to another, upsetting the electrical neutralit
y of each body during the process.

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 Radioactive decay of nuclei
• Reaction of nuclear fision:

conservation of charge

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Example

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Question a

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Question b

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 Compare the results
• ???

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