Electric Charge and Coulomb's Law - Video Notes Review

This set covers core concepts from the notes: types of charge, quantization and conservation, conductors vs insulators, Coulomb's law, unit meanings, and the vector nature of forces. Includes both basic facts and typical relationships (e.g., distance dependencies, sign effects).

Electric charge comes in two varieties: and .

positive and negative

An object with equal amounts of positive and negative charge behaves like an object with no __.

charge

Charge can be transferred between objects and can move through but not .

conductors; insulators

Charge is quantized and comes in integer multiples of the elementary charge __.

e

Charge is __.

conserved

A proton has a charge of + e.

+e

An electron has a charge of _ e.

-e

Like charges each other; unlike charges .

repel; attract

According to Newton's Third Law, the forces on two interacting charges have the same magnitude but act in __ directions.

opposite

Coulomb's law: F = __ q1 q2 / r^2.

k

In Coulomb's law, r represents the __ between the charges.

distance

The SI unit of force is the __.

Newton (N)

The SI unit of electric charge is the __.

Coulomb (C)

The approximate value of the Coulomb constant K in vacuum is __ N·m^2/C^2.

8.99 x 10^9

The permittivity of free space is denoted by __.

ε0 (epsilon naught)

The electric charge of the electron is __ C.

-1.60 x 10^-19

One microcoulomb equals __ C.

1 x 10^-6

Metals are __ conductors; insulators include rubber, wood, and plastic.

good

Semi-conductors are an intermediate class; silicon is a good example and are not as conductive as but more conductive than .

metals; insulators

In conductors, the outermost electrons are __ bound and free to travel.

loosely

In insulators, electrons are __ bound to atoms and are not free to flow.

tightly

Charge flows along a wire but not through the coating because the coating provides __.

insulation

When more than one charge exerts a force on a given charge, the net force is the __ sum of the individual forces.

vector

If charges are not in a straight line, the net force is found by __ the force vectors.

vector addition

The net force on a charge due to multiple charges is computed by adding the force vectors __.

component-wise