Electric Charges and Fields

Flashcards covering key concepts from the chapter on Electric Charges and Fields.

Electric Charge

A property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field.

Coulomb's Law

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

Conductors

Materials that allow the flow of electric charge; examples include metals.

Insulators

Materials that do not permit the flow of electric charge; examples include rubber and glass.

Static Electricity

The accumulation of electric charge on the surface of objects.

Electric Field (E)

A vector field around charged particles that exerts force on other charges within the field.

Electric Flux (Φ)

The measure of the quantity of electricity passing through a surface, defined mathematically as Φ = E • A.

Gauss's Law

The principle stating that the electric flux through a closed surface is equal to the charge enclosed divided by the permittivity of free space.

Electric Dipole Moment (p)

A measure of the separation of positive and negative charges in a system, defined as p = q × d, where q is the charge and d is the distance between charges.

Quantization of Charge

The concept that electric charge exists in discrete units, typically multiples of the elementary charge e.

Polarity of Charge

The property that determines whether a charge is positive or negative, with like charges repelling and unlike charges attracting.

Superposition Principle

A principle stating that in a system of multiple charges, the total force on any charge is the vector sum of the forces exerted by all other charges.