Electric Charge (Physics 3)

Electrically charged

When a material/object has an unbalanced amount of positive and negative charges

Alike charges

Repel

Unlike charges

Attract

An object with an equal amount of positive and negative charge has

No net charge

Protons

Positively charged particles

Neutrons

Uncharged particles

Nucleus

Where the neutrons are stored in the center of the atom

Electrons

Negatively charged particles

Ions

Atoms that are positively or negatively charged

Quantized

When an object is charged, its charge is always a multiple of a fundamental unit of charge (symbolized by e and always occurs as integer multiples of e in nature)

e

1.60 × 10^-19 C

Coulomb (C)

The SI unit of electric charge

Electrical conductors

Materials where the electric charges move freely (like copper and aluminum)

Electrical insulators

Materials in which electric charges do not move freely (like glass, rubber, silk, and plastic)

Semiconductors

Third class of materials characterized by electrical properties that are somewhere between those of insulators and conductors

Superconductors

Fourth class of materials that have zero electrical resistance when they are at or below a certain temperature

Charging by contact

When two objects/materials become oppositely charged by rubbing against each other and attract one another

Grounded

When a conductor is connected to Earth by means of conducting wire or copper pipe

Induction

The process of generating an electric current in a conductor by changing the magnetic field around it

Sink

A system which can absorb a large number of charges, such as Earth, without becoming locally charged itself

Polarization

The process of restricting oscillating transverse waves to a single plane