Electrostatics Vocabulary

Flashcards for Electrostatics

Fundamental property of matter with two types: Positive (+) and Negative (-). Like charges repel, opposite charges attract.

Electric Charge

Total charge remains constant in a closed system; charge is transferred, not created/destroyed.

Law of Conservation of Charge

Materials where electrons move freely, allowing charge to spread on the surface.

Conductor

Materials where electrons are bound, keeping charge localized.

Insulator

Charging by rubbing two materials together.

Charging by Friction

Charging by direct contact between charged and uncharged objects.

Charging by Conduction

Charging without direct contact, through the influence of an electric field.

Charging by Induction

Describes the force between two point charges; attractive if charges are opposite, repulsive if charges are alike.

Coulomb's Law

The principle that the total force on a charge is the vector sum of the forces from all other charges.

Superposition Principle

Region around a charged object where a force would be exerted on other charged objects.

Electric Field

Lines that represent the direction and strength of an electric field; away from positive charges and toward negative charges.

Electric Field Lines

The amount of work done per unit charge to move a test charge in an electric field; a scalar quantity.

Electric Potential

Surfaces where the electric potential is constant; always perpendicular to electric field lines.

Equipotential Surfaces

A law that relates the electric field to the distribution of electric charge; useful for symmetric charge distributions.

Gauss's Law

In electrostatics, the electric field inside is zero, excess charge resides on the surface, and the surface is an equipotential.

Conductors in Electrostatics

Conductors block external electric fields; used in Faraday cages.

Shielding

The ratio of charge to potential difference in a capacitor; measured in Farads (F).

Capacitance

A measure of a material's ability to reduce the electric field inside a capacitor, thereby increasing capacitance.

Dielectrics

Two equal and opposite charges separated by a distance.

Electric Dipoles

A vector quantity representing the orientation and magnitude of an electric dipole.

Dipole Moment