Electric Charge and Electric Field

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture on Electric Charge and Electric Field.

Electric Charge

A physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electric and magnetic field.

Coulomb's Law

The law that states that the magnitude of the electric force between two charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Coulomb (C)

The SI unit of electric charge, defined as the quantity of charge transported by a constant current of one ampere in one second.

Insulator

A material in which electrons are bound to atoms and cannot move freely, preventing the flow of electric current.

Conductor

A material that allows the flow of electric current due to the presence of free electrons.

Electric Field

A region around a charged object where an electric force is exerted on other charged objects.

Permittivity of Free Space (ϵ₀)

A constant that describes how electric fields interact with a vacuum, valued at approximately 8.854 imes 10^{-12} ext{ C}^2/ ext{N m}^2.

Point Charge

A charge that is concentrated at a single point in space, used as an idealization in physics.

Electric Force (F)

The force that a charged object exerts on another charged object, described by the equation F = k \frac{q_1 q_2}{r^2}.

Electric Field Strength (E)

The force experienced per unit charge at a point in an electric field, given by E = F/q.

Electric Charge Density (ρ)

The amount of electric charge per unit volume, expressed as ρ = Q/V.

Surface Charge Density (σ)

The amount of electric charge per unit surface area, given by σ = Q/A.

Linear Charge Density (λ)

The amount of electric charge per unit length, defined as λ = Q/ℓ.

Field Lines

Imaginary lines that represent the direction and strength of an electric field; the density of the lines indicates the strength of the field.