M3 Electric Charge and Force

These flashcards cover key concepts related to electric charge and electric force as outlined in the College Physics 2 lecture.

Electric Charge

A property of matter that causes it to experience electrical and magnetic effects.

Coulomb (C)

The unit of electrical charge named after Charles Augustin de Coulomb.

Quantization of Charge

Electric charge can take only discrete values and is quantized; expressed as Q = ±ne, where e is the elementary charge.

Conservation of Charge

The principle that electric charge is conserved in an isolated system; one object gains negative charge while another gains an equal amount of positive charge.

Properties of Charge

Charge is associated with mass, and its mass slightly increases when acquiring negative charge and decreases with positive charge.

Conductors

Materials that allow electric charge to move easily from one region to another.

Insulators

Materials that do not easily permit electric charge to flow.

Semiconductors

Materials that have intermediate properties between conductors and insulators.

Induction

A charging process that does not involve direct contact.

Friction

A method of charging where objects are rubbed together causing a transfer of charge.

Coulomb's Law

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

Superposition Principle

The principle stating that the net electric force on a charge due to multiple other charges is the vector sum of the forces acting on it from each charge.