Chapter 1: Electric Charge; Coulomb’s Law

Vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamentals of electric charge, classification of materials, units of measure, and Coulomb's Law as presented in the lecture transcript.

Electric force and magnetic force

The two special types of forces which occur in nature as a result of the constituents of matter having electric charge.

Conductors

Materials in which charges can move about freely.

Insulators

Materials in which electric charge is not easily transported.

Coulomb ($C$)

A scalar physical unit for measuring electric charge, defined such that $1$ coulomb flows past a point in a wire in $1$ second when the current is $1$ ampere ($1\text{ A} = 1\text{ C/s}$).

Electrons

Fundamental particles that carry negative charge; it is the charge typically transferred during simple interactions like rubbing.

Elementary Charge ($e$)

Defined as the magnitude of charge $1.602177 \times 10^{-19}\text{ C}$.

Quantized

The property of electric charge that describes how all particles found in nature have charges that are integral multiples of the elementary charge ($q = ne$ where $n = 0, \text{ ±1, ±2 …}$).

Electron Mass ($m_e$)

The mass value assigned to the electron, defined as $9.1094 \times 10^{-31}\text{ kg}$.

Coulomb’s Law

Equation used to calculate the magnitude of the force of repulsion or attraction between two point charges separated by distance $r$; expressed as $F = k \frac{|q_1| |q_2|}{r^2}$.

Coulomb constant ($k$)

A constant associated with electrical forces, valued at $8.9876 \times 10^9\text{ }\frac{N · m^2}{C^2}$.

Permittivity constant ($ε_0$)

A constant valued at $8.85419 \times 10^{-12}\text{ }\frac{C^2}{N · m^2}$, used in the relation $k = \frac{1}{4πε_0}$.

Superposition Property

The principle that when several point charges are present, the total force on a particular charge is the vector sum of the individual forces obtained from Coulomb’s law.

Up quark

A constituent of a neutron with a charge of $+\frac{2e}{3}$.

Down quark

A constituent of a neutron with a charge of $-\frac{e}{3}$.

Modern physics

The collective term for relativity (revisions in the relation of space and time) and quantum theory (phenomena on the atomic scale).