Electrical Charge

and
Coulomb’s Law
 Electrostatics
The study of properties of charges at rest is called electrostatics.

Electric Charge
Electric charge, basic property of matter
carried by some elementary
particles that governs how the particles
are affected by an electric or magnetic
field.
Atomic Structure

Usually, an atom has the same number of positive and negative charges.
This makes the atom NEUTRAL.
Transfer of electric charges
A lightning bolt is like the spark that
gives you a shock when you touch a
metal doorknob. Of course, the lightning
bolt is on a much larger scale. But both
the lightning bolt and spark are a sudden
transfer of electric charge.
When different materials are rubbed
together, electrons can transfer from
one material to the other.
e.g. A glass rod is rubbed with silk.
Electric Charge and its properties
Charge is conserved Quantization of charges
Charge can neither be Experimentally it is
created nor be destroyed. determined that all the charges
Sometimes a neutron breaks are integral multiple of basic
into proton and electron unit of charge denoted by e
having equal and opposite Millikan in 1912.
charges.
q = ne where, e = 1.6 × 10 -19
S.I. unit of charge = coulomb denoted by C.

What is the number of electrons needed to carry one

coulomb of charge?
How can charges be detected?
• Use a device called an electroscope detects charges.
• Consists of a metal knob connected by a stem to two
thin, lightweight pieces of metal foil called leaves.

Two types: gold-leaf electroscope and needle

electroscope.
Gold leaf: thin, movable leaves diverge when charged.
If no charge is present, the leaves point straight down.

Needle electroscope: the presence of a charge will

deflect the needle from its usual upright position.
How do objects obtain a charges?
• Charging by Conduction
o charging a neutral body by touching it with a charged body.
o Charging by conduction refers to the technique of charging an
uncharged material by bringing it into touch with some other
charged material.
o As a consequence, whenever a charged item comes into
interaction with an uncharged conductor, electrons are transferred
from the charged object toward the conductor.
o Whenever a negative object is being utilized just to charge a
neutral object, both things become negatively charged, as well as
vice versa.
• Separation of charge on neutral objects
A charged object will induce a separation of charges within a
neutral conductor. It will result in an attractive force between the
charged object and the neutral conductor.
• Charging by Induction
Charging an object without touching it.

a. Two neutral spheres are touching

A charged rod is brought near them which will separate the
charges(one is positive other is negative). The spheres are separated
with the rod nearby. Each sphere will have a charge that is equal in
magnitude but opposite in sign.
Cont.

b. Grounding
process of connecting a body
to Earth to eliminate excess
charge.
 Electrical Forces
“Charges of the same signs repel each other and
charges of the opposite sign attract each other”
These attractive and repulsive forces among the
charges are called electrical forces.

Application of Electrical Forces

An electrical force between charged body has many industrial applications .
• Photocopying or xerography
• Ink-jet printing
• Electrostatic paint spray
• Powder coating etc.
Conductors and Insulators
The materials through which
charges can flow are called
conductors.
e.g. metals, human body, tap
water etc.
In conductors, each atom
contributes one conduction
electron. Therefore, there will
be on the average about 1023
conduction electrons per cm3 .
The materials through which
charges cannot flow are called
insulators.
e.g. glass, plastic, wood etc.
In insulators, at room
temperature it is very difficult to
find even one conduction
electron per cm3 .
Semi-conductors
Intermediate between conductor and insulators are the semi-conductors
e.g. Ge and Si, which might contain 1010 – 1012 conduction electrons per
cm3 .
The main characteristics of these materials is that the density of
conduction electrons can be increased by:

i. Adding small quantity impurities

ii. Increase the applied voltage
iii. Increase the temperature
iv. Increasing the intensity of incident
 Coulomb’s Law
In 1785, French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb coined a
tangible relationship in mathematical form between two bodies that
have been electrically charged. He published an equation for the force
causing the bodies to attract or repel each other, which is known as
Coulomb’s law or Coulomb’s inverse-square law.
According to Coulomb’s law, the force
of attraction or repulsion between two
charged bodies is directly proportional to
the product of their charges and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance
between them.
F ∝ q1q2/d2
Derivation on board…..
Coulomb’s Law and Newton’s Law of Gravitation
(A Comparison)
The electrical forces between two The gravitational forces between
charges is directly proportional to two masses is directly proportional
the product of their charges and to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the inversely proportional to the square
square of the distance between of the distance between them.
them. F = G m1m2/r2
F = k q1q2/d2
Similarities among the Electrical and Gravitational Force
i. Both forces are the conservative.
ii. Both forces obey the inverse square law.
iii.The charge ‘q’ plays the same role in Coulomb’s law that the mass ‘m’
plays in Newton’s law of gravitation.
Differences among the Electrical and Gravitational Force
i. Electric force might be attractive as well as repulsive, while the
gravitational force is only attractive.
ii. The value of gravitational constant is very small while the electrical
constant is very large. It is because of the fact that gravitational force is
very weak as compared to electrical force.
iii.Electrostatic force is medium dependent while the gravitational force lake
this property.