Electric Charges and Forces

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to electric charges and forces as presented in the lecture notes.

Electric Charge

A property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. There are two types of electric charge: positive and negative.

Constituents of Atoms

Electrons and protons; electrons are negatively charged, whereas protons are positively charged.

Charging

The process of transferring electrons from one object to another.

Coulomb’s Law

The fundamental law that describes the electric force between two charged particles, stating that the force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges.

Conductors

Materials through or along which charge moves easily.

Insulators

Materials on or in which charge is immobile.

Electric Field

The region around a charged particle where a force would be exerted on other charged particles.

Charge Conservation

The principle that charge cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred from one object to another.

Charge Polarization

The slight separation of positive and negative charges in a neutral object when exposed to a nearby charged object.

Electrostatic Force

The force between charged objects, which can be attractive or repulsive depending on the nature of the charges.

Fundamental Unit of Charge (e)

The smallest unit of charge, approximately 1.60 × 10^-19 coulombs, which is the charge of a single proton or electron.

Ionization

The process of adding or removing electrons from an atom, resulting in the formation of ions.

Electric Dipole

A pair of equal and opposite charges separated by a distance, resulting from polarization.

Discharging

The process of removing charge from an object, which can be done by touching it.

Force Direction on Charge

For a positive charge, the force is in the direction of the electric field; for a negative charge, it is opposite the direction of the electric field.

Permittivity Constant (ϵ0)

A constant used in equations involving electric fields and forces in a vacuum.