Electric Charge and Static

Electricity
Electric Charge
 All matter is made up of atoms

 Atoms contain
1. Protons (+)
2. Neutrons (0)
3. Electrons (-)
What is Static Electricity?
 Static electricity occurs when there
is a build up of electric charge on
the surface of a material.
 It is called static electricity because
the charges don’t move.
 The electricity we use everyday
involves moving charges.
What is charge?
 To understand charge we have to look
at things on an extremely small scale.
 We have to try and understand things
that we can’t even see with the most
powerful microscope.

Atoms!
The atom
 Everything we see around us everyday is
made of atoms.
 We can’t see individual atoms because
they are so small.
 In fact the diameter of an atom is about
0.0000000001m
 In the air in your classroom there are
about 1500000000000000000000000000
atoms.
What is inside the atom?
 The atom is made of 3 sorts of particles.

The electron
The proton
The neutron

 We can imagine each as a tiny little ball.

Inside an atom
 The protons and  The electrons
neutrons sit orbit around the
together in a nucleus, a bit
lump in the like the planets
middle called the orbiting the Sun.
nucleus.
Most of the atom is empty space if
atoms were the size of football
fields, the nucleus would be a
grain of sand in the middle and the
electrons would be orbiting around
the edge.
.
Charge
 The electron is negatively charged.
 The proton is positively charged.
 The neutron has no charge, it is
neutral.
Charge
 Most things have the same number
of electrons and protons in them.
 They don’t have any overall charge.
 If this isn’t true interesting things
can happen.
How do charges behave?
 What do you know about magnets?

 2 north poles will repel each other, but

a north and a south put together will
attract one another.

opposites attract, likes

repel.
How do charges behave?
 Exactly the same thing happens with
charges.
 2 positive charges put together will
repel each other.
 Put a positive charge near a negative
charge and they will attract each
other.
 A charged object may even attract a
neutral one. WHY?
Law of Electric Charges

 The law of electric charges states

that like charges repel, and opposite
charges attract.
 Protons are positively charged and
electrons are negatively charged, so
they are attracted to each other.
 Without this attraction, electrons
would not be held in atoms.
 Recall This?
The Fundamental Forces
 The strong nuclear interaction is very
strong, but very short-ranged. It acts only
over ranges of order 10-13 centimeters and
is responsible for holding the nuclei of
atoms together. It is basically attractive,
but can be effectively repulsive in some
circumstances.
 The electromagnetic force causes electric and magnetic effects such as the repulsion
between like electrical charges or the interaction of bar magnets. It is long-ranged, but
much weaker than the strong force. It can be attractive or repulsive, and acts only
between pieces of matter carrying electrical charge.
 The weak nuclear force is responsible for radioactive decay and neutrino interactions. It
has a very short range and, as its name indicates, it is very weak.
 The gravitational force is weak, but very long ranged. Furthermore, it is always
attractive, and acts between any two pieces of matter in the Universe since mass is its
source.
 How bout This?
The Fundamental Forces
 The strong nuclear interaction is very strong, but very short-ranged. It acts only over
ranges of order 10-13 centimeters and is responsible for holding the nuclei of atoms
together. It is basically attractive, but can be effectively repulsive in some
circumstances.
 The electromagnetic force causes electric
and magnetic effects such as the repulsion
between like electrical charges or the
interaction of bar magnets. It is long-
ranged, but much weaker than the strong
force. It can be attractive or repulsive, and
acts only between pieces of matter carrying
electrical charge.
 The weak nuclear force is responsible for radioactive decay and neutrino interactions. It
has a very short range and, as its name indicates, it is very weak.
 The gravitational force is weak, but very long ranged. Furthermore, it is always
attractive, and acts between any two pieces of matter in the Universe since mass is its
source.
 What is Static Electricity?

Law of Electric Charges:

1. Opposite charges attract
 What is Static Electricity?

Law of Electric Charges:

1. Opposite charges attract
2. Like charges repel
 What is Static Electricity?

Law of Electric Charges:

1. Opposite charges attract
2. Like charges repel
3. Charged objects attract neutral objects
Law of Electric Charges
What?
 Electric Force

The force between the

charged objects is an
electric force.

The size of the electric force depends on 2 things:

1. The amount of charge (the greater the charge,
the greater the force)
2. The distance between charges (the further the
distance, the less the force)
Talk more about this
later…
Electric Field
 An electric field is the region around
a charged object where electric
forces can be exerted on another
charged object.
(Repelled or attracted)

Talk more about this

later…
Charged Objects
 Atoms do not have a charge
because the number of electrons
and protons cancel each other out.
Ex.
3 protons (+) & 3 electrons (-) = 0
Charged Objects
How do objects get charged?
 They either gain or lose electrons.

 Why not protons?

Ex.
3 protons (+) & 5 electrons (-) =

7 protons (+) & 2 electrons (-) =

 What is Static Electricity?

We don't draw atoms, just "+" and "–" to

illustrate the overall charges

e.g. a neutral object

5+

5-
overall charge 0
 What is Static Electricity?

We don't draw atoms, just "+" and "–" to

illustrate the overall charges

e.g. a positive object

5+

3-
overall charge 2+
 What is Static Electricity?

We don't draw atoms, just "+" and "–" to

illustrate the overall charges

e.g. a negative object

5+

8-
overall charge 3 -
Hi!
 How Can You Charge Objects?
 There are 3 ways objects can be charged:
 Can you name them?
1. Friction
2. Conduction
3. Induction

**In each of these, only the electrons move. The protons stay in
the nucleus**
Static electricity
 It is this imbalance of positive and
negative charges that causes:
 Balloons to stick to walls.
 Your hair to stand on end when
brush your hair on a dry day.
 And the electric shock you
sometimes get from the door
handle.
Friction
 Charging by friction occurs when
electrons are “wiped” from one object
onto another.

Ex.
If you use a cloth to rub a plastic ruler,
electrons move from the cloth to the ruler.
The ruler gains electrons and the cloth
loses electrons.
Static electricity
 Static electricity is caused when
certain materials are rubbed against
each other.
 Electrons can be rubbed off one
material and on to another.
 The material that has got extra
electrons is now negatively charged
 The material which has lost
electrons is positively charged.
 - + - + +
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+ + -
- +
+ -
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+
-
+
 - + - + +
- -
- +
+ + -
- +
+ -
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+ + -
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+ -
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+ + -
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+ -
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+ + -
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+ -
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 -
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 Conduction

 Charging by conduction happens when electrons move

from one object to another through direct contact
(touching).

Ex. Suppose you touch an uncharged piece of metal with a

positively charged glass rod. Electrons from the metal will
move to the glass rod. The metal loses electrons and
becomes positively charged. 
 Induction
 Charging by induction happens when charges in
an uncharged object are rearranged without
direct contact with a charged object.

Ex.

If you charge up a balloon through friction

and place the balloon near pieces of paper,
the charges of the paper will be rearranged
and the paper will be attracted to the balloon.
 Conservation of Charge
 When you charge something by any
method, no charges are created or
destroyed.
 The numbers of electrons and protons
stay the same. Electrons simply move
from one atom to another, which makes
areas that have different charges.
Conductors and
Insulators

 An electrical conductor is a material in

which charges can move easily.

 Most metals are good conductors because

some of their electrons are free to move.

 Conductors are used to make wires. For

example, a lamp cord has metal wire and
metal prongs.

 Copper, aluminum, and mercury are good

conductors.
Conductors and
Insulators

 An electrical insulator is a material in

which charges cannot move easily.

 Insulators do not conduct charges very well

because their electrons cannot flow freely.
The electrons are tightly held in the atoms of
the insulator.

 The insulating material in a lamp cord stops

charges from leaving the wire and protects
you from electric shock.

 Plastic, rubber, glass, wood, and air are

good insulators.
  Static electricity
is the electric
charge at rest on
Static Electricity an object.

 When something
is static, it is not
moving.
 The charges of
static electricity do
not move away
from the object
that they are in.
So, the object
keeps its charge.

 Ex. Clothes taken

out of a dryer
 Electric Discharge
 The loss of static electricity as charges
move off an object is called electric
discharge.
Sometimes,
electric
Sometimes, discharge
electric happens
discharge quickly.
happens
slowly. Ex. wearing
rubber-soled
Ex: static on shoes on
clothes carpet,
lightning
Lightning
What causes lightning?
 Lightning is
actually just static
electricity on a
much larger scale.
 The rubbing is
caused by air
moving around
 In thunderclouds
bottom is usually
negative and top
is positive.
Thunder
 When the lightning flash happens it
heats the air to a temperature 5
times hotter than the surface of the
sun.

 This causes nearby air to expand

and vibrate forming the sound we
hear as thunder.
Interesting facts
 Lightning bolts can travel at speeds
of up to 60,000 miles per second.
 Every second around 100 bolts of
lightning strike the Earth.
 One lightning bolt has enough
electricity to power 200,000 homes.
 You are more likely to be struck by
lightning than be eaten by a shark.
Some myths
 Lightning never strikes in the same place
twice.
 False, the Empire State Building is
reportedly struck 100 times a year.
 Wearing rubber shoes will protect me in a
thunder storm.
 False, Lighting is too powerful to be
stopped by half an inch of rubber or
several hundred feet of rubber for that
matter.
How Lightning Forms
 Lightning
 Lightning usually strikes the highest point in a
charged area because that point provides the
shortest path for the charges to reach the ground.

 Anything that sticks up or out in an area can

provide a path for lightning.

 A lightning rod is a pointed rod connected to the

ground by a wire.

 Objects, such as a lightning rod, that are joined to Earth by a conductor,

such as a wire, are “grounded.” Any object that is grounded provides a
path for electric charges to move to Earth.

 Because Earth is so large, it can give up or absorb charges without being

damaged.

 When lightning strikes a lightning rod, the electric charges are carried
safely to Earth through the rod’s wire. By directing the charge to Earth,
the rods prevent lightning from damaging buildings.