Applied Physics

GSC 113

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Course Title Applied Physics
Credit Hours 3+1

Course Prerequisites None

Text Book:
Halliday & Resnick, Jearl Walker, “Fundamentals of
Physics”, 9th edition.
Reference Book :
Young and Freedman, University Physics
Bogart T. F., Electronic Devices and Circuits, Prentice
Hall

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 Units and Measurements

Fundamentals of Physics, Halliday, Resnick, and

Walker, 9th edition.
Units of Measurement
• Physics forms a link between the physical world (concepts) and the mathematical
world (quantitative)
• This inevitably involves measurements
• Measurements inevitably involve units
• We’ll stick to MKS (SI) units in this course
• MKS: meters; kilograms; seconds
• As opposed to cgs: centimeter; gram; seconds
• Distance in meters (m)
• 1 meter is close to 40 inches
• Mass in kilograms (kg)
• 1 kg is about 2.2 pounds
• Time in seconds (s)
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 Secondary Units
• Units can be combined in a variety of ways to form
complex units, many of which have their own
names/symbols
quantity formulation Complex unit For short

velocity dist/time m/s —

m/s2 = m/s/s = m/s
acceleration velocity/time —
per s
force F=ma kg·m/s2 Newton (N)

work/energy W=F·d kg·m2/s2 Joule (J = N·m)

power energy/time kg·m2/s3 Watt (W = J/s)

frequency cycles/second 1/s Hertz (Hz)

Pascals (Pa =
pressure force/area kg/m·s2
N/m2)
 Electrical Units
• We’ll deal a lot with electrical phenomena in this
course, with its own (but related) set of units:

quantity formulation units for short

charge I Coulombs C

current charge/time C/s Amps (A)

voltage V = IR V Volts (V)

resistance R = V/I volts/amp Ohms ()

P = VI = I2R =
power volt-amps Watts (W = J/s)
V2/R
electric field voltage/distance V/m —
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Mass and Inertia
• Mass is how hard it is to get something to move
• Intimately related to the idea of inertia
• Effectively how many protons and neutrons in the thing
• Distinct from weight, which relates to gravity
• the same mass weighs different amounts on different planets
• Inertia relates to Newton’s first law of motion:
an object in motion will remain in that state of motion unless acted on by an
outside force
• This applies to being at rest as well as being in a state of motion
• motion relative to what

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Newton’s Second Law of Motion
• Okay, what about when there is an outside force?
• outside: not coming from within the body; an external agent
• force: something that pushes or pulls
• Then we have Newton’s Second Law of Motion:

F = ma
• Great: now we have to talk about acceleration
• the rabbit hole gets deeper
• but first let’s give some examples of force…

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Examples of Force
• Examples:
• gravity exerts a downward force on you
• the floor exerts an upward force on a ball during its bounce
• a car seat exerts a forward force on your body when you
accelerate forward from a stop
• the seat you’re sitting in now is exerting an upward force on
you (can you feel it?)
• you exert a sideways force on a couch that you slide across the
floor
• a string exerts a centrally-directed (centripetal) force on a rock
at the end of a string that you’re twirling over your head
• the expanding gas in your car’s cylinder exerts a force against
the piston
• Note the syntax: Agent exerts directed force on recipient
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Velocity and Acceleration
• Velocity is a speed and associated direction
• 10 m/s toward the north
• 50 m/s straight upward
• Acceleration is any change in velocity
• either in speed OR direction
• Acceleration measured as rate of change of velocity
• velocity is expressed in meters per second (m/s)
• acceleration is meters per second per second
• expressed as m/s2 (meters per second-squared)

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The Force-Acceleration Connection
• Whenever there is a net force, there will be an acceleration
• A ball thrown into the air has the force of gravity operating on it, so its
velocity continuously changes, resulting in a curved path
• When you step on the gas, a forward force acts on your car, making it speed
up
• The force of gravity attracts the earth toward the sun. This has the effect of
changing the direction of earth’s velocity, wrapping it into a circle around the
sun (centripetal force)
• A car, slamming into the side of another car already moving forward, will
exert a sideways force, changing the traveling car’s direction of motion
• When a bat hits a ball, the large momentary force results in a large
acceleration of the ball as long as contact is maintained
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All Forces Great and Small
• The relation, F = ma, tells us more than the fact that force and acceleration go
together
• the relation is quantitative, and depends on mass
• For the same applied force:
• a small mass will have a greater acceleration
• a large mass Force
will have acceleration
= massasmaller OR Force = massacceleration
acceleration

• If you want the same acceleration, a smaller mass requires a smaller force, etc.
• this then relates mass and inertia in an intimate way:
• how hard is it to get an object moving?
Hold On a Second…
• I’ve got forces acting on me right now, but I’m not accelerating
anywhere
• very perceptive, and this is where the concept of net force comes in
Total Force
Force #1

Total Force = 0
Force #2 Force #1
Force #2

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Examples of Zero Net Force
• Sitting in your seat, gravity is pulling down on you, but the seat reacts
by pushing up on you. The forces cancel, so there is no net
acceleration
• Pushing against a huge crate, the force of friction from the floor
opposes this push, resulting in no net force and thus no acceleration
Newton’s Third Law
• For every force, there is an equal and opposite force
• every “action” has a “back-reaction”
Force on box by floor (normal force)
• these are precisely equal and precisely opposite
box
floor

Force on box by gravity

• You can’t push without being pushed back just as hard

• in tug-of-war, each side experiences the same force (opposite direction)
• when you push on a brick wall, it pushes back on you!
Force Pairs Illustrated

Force on box Force on person

by person by box

Force on floor by box Force on box

by floor
Force on person Force on floor
by floor by person
Not shown are the forces of gravity and the associated floor forces
 Electric Charge
Fundamentals of Physics, Halliday, Resnick, and Walker, 9th edition.
Questions!!!!
• Question # 1:
• What is matter?
• Question # 2:
• What is an electric charge?
• Question #3:
• What is Electric Force?
Questions!!!!
• Question # 4:
• What are Conductors & Insulators?
• Question # 5:
• Define Electromagnetism
• Question # 6:
• State Coulomb’s Law
What is Physics?
You are surrounded by devices that depend upon physics of electromagnetism which is the
combination of electric and magnetic phenomena.
This physics is at the root of computers, television, radio, telecommunications, household lighting.
This physics is also the basis of the natural world. Not only does it hold together all the atoms and
molecules in the world, it also produces lightning, day light and rainbows.
 Charge?
• What is matter? (mass+space)
• Any thing that occupies space and has mass

• Characteristic property of a matter because of which it experiences

electrostatic force of repulsion or attraction
•
• There are two types of electric charges: positive and negative.
• Like charges repel each other
• Opposite charges attract each other

A vast amount of charge is hidden in everyday object.

[positive, negative, neutral]
Atomic Structure

• Atomic Structure

• Negative electron cloud

• Nucleus of positive protons, uncharged neutrons
Electric Force
• Electric Force: the force of attraction or repulsion between charged objects
Electric Charge

(a) Two charged rods of the same sign repel each other.

(b) Two charged rods of opposite signs attract each other. Plus signs indicate a
positive net charge, and minus signs indicate a negative net charge.
Conductors and Insulators
• Electric Force: the force of attraction or repulsion between charged
objects

• Neutral: an object with no charge

• -has an equal number of protons & electrons
Conductors and Insulators
• Negatively Charged Object: an object that has more electrons than protons

5+
8-
overall charge = 3-
Conductors and Insulators
• Positively Charged Object: an object that has fewer electrons than
protons

5+
3-
overall charge = 2+
 Static Electricity
• An imbalance of electric charge at rest on the surface of
an object
Static Cling
•
• Static cling is a property of substances that make them cling to each
other because of opposite electrical charges. When the conditions are
dry and two different kinds of materials come in contact with each
other, sometimes there is an exchange of electrons between the two
substances. This exchange of electrons leaves one substance with a
positive charge and the other with a negative charge. Basic laws of
science state that unlike charges attract, thus the two substances will
attract one another, which is termed as static cling.”
Electric Discharge:
• The rapid transfer of electrons from one object to
another
Grounding:
• Connecting an object to a large body, like Earth, that can
remove an electric charge from the object
Conductors and Insulators
• Conductor: a material that transmits electrical energy
easily
• Metals are the best conductors
 Conductors and Insulators

• Insulator: a material that resists or blocks the flow of

electrons through it
Coulomb’s law: Force between pairs of
point charges
 q1 F12 F21 q2

or F12  q1 q2 F21

or F12  q1 q2 F21

Coulomb’s law -- the force between point charges:

 Lies along the line connecting the charges.
 Is proportional to the magnitude of each charge.
 Is inversely proportional to the distance squared.
 Note that Newton’s third law says |F12| = |F21|
 Coulomb’s law:

• Two charged particles repel each other if they have the same sign
of charge, either

• both positive or
• both negative or
• They attract each other if they have opposite signs of charge.
Coulomb’s law:

 Electrostatic force
This force of repulsion or attraction due to the charge properties of objects is
called an electrostatic force

 q1 F12 F21 q2

r12
 If particle 1 has charge q1 and particle 2 has charge q2, then the force on particle 1 is
Coulomb’s law:  q1 F12 F21 q2

r12
 If particle 1 has charge q1 and particle 2 has charge q2, then the force on particle 1 is

Where
 r is the distance between them, and k is a constant.
 (As with other unit vectors, r has a magnitude of exactly 1 and no dimension or unit; its
purpose is to point.)
 If the particles have the same signs of charge, the force on particle 1 is in the direction
of ; if they have opposite signs, the force is opposite .
Coulomb’s law:

k | q1 | | q2 |
| F12 | 2
r12

Permittivity constant:
Coulomb’s law:
If we have n charged particles, they interact independently in pairs, and the force on
any one of them, let us say particle 1, is given by the vector sum

For example, F14 is the force acting on particle 1 due to the presence of particle 4
Sample Problem!!!
• Figure shows two positively charged particles fixed in place on an x axis.
The charges are q1 = 1.6010 -19 C and q2 = 3.2010 -19 C, and the particle
separation is R=0.0200 m.
• What are the magnitude and direction of the electrostatic force on
particle 1 from particle 2?
Reading Exercise 
• Rub a wool (not acrylic) cap on your hair (on a dry day). This removes some of the
electrons from your hair, giving each hair a slight positive electrical charge. Like
charges repulse one another, so each hair repulses the other hairs. The result is a
mad-scientist hair-do.
Materials classified based on their ability to move charge

• Conductors are materials in which a significant number of electrons are free

to move. Examples include metals.

• The charged particles in nonconductors (insulators) are not free to move.

Examples include rubber, plastic, glass.

• Semiconductors are materials that are intermediate between conductors and

insulators; examples include silicon and germanium in computer chips.

• Superconductors are materials that are perfect conductors, allowing charge

to move without any hindrance.
Electric Charges in Solids:
• In macroscopic solids, nuclei often arrange themselves
into a stiff regular pattern called a “lattice”.

• Electrons move around this lattice. Depending on how

they move the solid can be classified by its “electrical
properties” as an insulator or a conductor.
 Charges in solids
• In a conductor, electrons move around freely, forming a
“sea” of electrons. This is why metals conduct electricity.
• Charges can be “induced” (moved around) in conductors.

Blue background = mobile electrons

Red circles = static positive charge (nuclei)

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