Electric Charge (Coulomb)
Conductors
Conductors contain plenty of free electrons which can move when an electric field is present.
Insulators
Insulators contain very few free electrons, thus inhibiting the electric field.
Conservation of Charge
The total charge of an isolated system is conserved, and cannot change.
Coulomb’s Law
Electric Field
Force per unit charge experienced by a small positive test charge q.
The closer the field lines, the stronger the field.
Electric Field Strength (Small Positive Test Charge)
Electric Field Strength (Two Charges)
Electrostatic Charge
In electrostatics, the electric field is zero inside a conductor. This is because electrostatics deals with situations in which the charge doesn’t move. If the electric field existed inside a conductor, it would force charges to move.