Chapter 16 Review Flashcards

Flashcards on Electric Charge, Electric Force, and Electric Fields

Properties of Electric Charge

There are two kinds of electric charge; like charges repel, and unlike charges attract.

Protons

Positively charged particles.

Neutrons

Uncharged particles.

Electrons

Negatively charged particles.

Electric charge is quantized

Electric charge is always a multiple of a fundamental unit of charge.

Coulomb (C)

The unit for measuring charge.

Fundamental unit of charge (e)

The magnitude of the charge of a single electron or proton.

Electrical conductor

A material in which charges can move freely (easily).

Electrical insulator

A material in which charges can’t move freely (easily).

Induction

A process of charging a conductor by bringing it near another charged object and grounding the conductor.

Polarization

The charges within individual molecules are realigned such that the molecule has a slight charge separation.

Coulomb’s Law

The electric force is proportional to the magnitude of each charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Resultant force

The vector sum of the individual forces on that charge.

Equilibrium

When a body is in equilibrium, the net external force acting on that body is zero.

Field force

A force that is exerted by one object on another even though there is no physical contact between the two objects.

Electric field

A region where an electric force on a test charge can be detected.

Direction of the electric field vector, E

The direction of the electric force that would be exerted on a small positive test charge.