APPLIED PHYSICS (PHY-105)

DR. HAFSA FAIZ

CHAPTER # 1. ELECTRIC CHARGE
ELECTRIC CHARGE
 Two kinds of electric charges, which
were given the names positive and
negative by Benjamin Franklin (1706–
1790).
 Negative charge is that possessed by
electrons and positive charge as that
possessed by protons.

charges of the same sign repel one another
and
charges with opposite signs attract one
another.
Figure 1 (a) A negatively charged rubber rod
suspended by a thread is attracted to a positively
charged glass rod. (b) A negatively charged rubber rod
is repelled by another negatively charged rubber rod.
ELECTRIC CHARGE

 A body is said to be electrical neutral if it contains equal number of positive and

negative charges.
 When two bodies are rubbed together, their neutrality is distributed due to
transfer of electrons from one body to the other.
 The body which gives electrons becomes electrically positive and the body
which gains electrons becomes negative.
 The charge bodies whose sizes are much smaller than the distance between them
are called point charges.
PROPERTIES OF ELECTRIC CHARGE
 Quantization of Charges (1909 Robert Millikan)
 When the two bodies are rubbed together, transfer of electrons from one
body to the other takes place and they are said to be electrified.

 The magnitude of charge q that can be detected and measured on any

object is given by
 where n = 0,±1,±2,………… and e is the elementary unit of charge called on unit
charge, has the experimentally determined value
 e = 1.6 × 10-19 C
 There are two kinds of charges in nature; charges of opposite sign
attract one another and charges of the same sign repel one another.
 Total charge in an isolated system is conserved.
 Charge is quantized.
CONSERVATION OF CHARGES
 When the two bodies are rubbed together, they are electrified.

 The process of rubbing does not create charge but only transfer it
from one body to the other.

 Thus the charges can neither be created nor destroyed.

 This hypothesis is called conservation of charge.

CONDUCTORS AND INSULATORS
 The materials through which charges can flow are
called conductors. e.g., metals, human body etc.
 The materials through which charges cannot flow
are called insulators. e.g. glass, plastics, wood etc.
 If charges are placed on an insulator, the charges
stay at that point but
 Metallic rod cannot be charged because any charge
placed on it easily flow through the rod, through
our body and to the ground.
FREE ELECTRONS

 In conductors, each atom contributes one conduction electron. Therefore,

there will be on the average about 1023 conduction electrons per cm3.
 In insulators, at room temperature, it is very difficult to find even one
conduction electrons per cm3.
 Intermediate between conductor and insulators are the semi-conductors
e.g. Ge and Si, which might contain 10− 10 conduction electrons per cm3.
 CHARGING BY INDUCTION
Charging by induction using a positively charged rod:
 Place two metal spheres, A and B, on insulating platforms
and bring them together.
 Bring a positively charged rod close to one of the spheres,
say A, but don’t let it touch it.

 The rod attracts the free electrons in the spheres.

 The rear surface of sphere B now has an excess of positive charge.
 The left surface of sphere A has a negative charge surplus, while the right surface of
sphere B has a positive charge excess.
CONT…..

 Separate the spheres by a modest distance while holding the glass rod near sphere A.
(c).
 The two spheres are found to be charged in opposite directions and are attracted to
each other.
 Take out the rod as demonstrated in Figure the charges on spheres rearrange
themselves (d).
 Separate the spheres completely now.
 As illustrated in Figure the charges on them are uniformly spread over them (e)
CONT…..

 Charging by induction using a

negatively charged rod:
 COULOMB’S LAW
 Charles Coulomb (1736–1806) measured the magnitudes of the
electric forces between charged objects
 The electric force is
 inversely proportional to the square of the separation r between
the particles and directed along the line joining them;
 proportional to the product of the charges q1 and q2 on the two
particles;
 is attractive if the charges are of opposite sign and repulsive if
the charges have the same sign;
 a conservative force.
 Point charge
 ke is a constant called the Coulomb constant.

SI units of charge and k:

 SI unit of charge is coulomb (C ) and so the units of k are
 Also

where the constant ϵ0(lowercase Greek epsilon) is known as the permittivity of free
space and has the value

1 C of charge is approximately equal to the charge of 6.24 × 1018 electrons or protons.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

1. Physics for Scientists and Engineers (Serway Jewett 6 th Edition)

2. Fundamentals of Physics (Halliday Resnick Jearl Walker 10 th Edition)