Chapter 21

Electric Charge and

Electric Field
27.02.2023
Dr.Öğr.Üyesi Aybike Ural Yalçın
Learning goals of Ch21
• how objects become electrically charged, and how we know that
electric charge is conserved.
• how to use Coulomb’s law to calculate the electric force between
charges.
• the distinction between electric force and electric field.
• how to use the idea of electric field lines to visualize and interpret
electric fields.
• how to calculate the properties of electric charge distributions,
including dipoles.
Introduction
• We now begin our study of electromagnetism, one of the four
fundamental forces.
• We start with electric charge and look at electric fields.
Electricity origin Greek word elektron,
which means amber.
Objects can be charged by rubbing .
Electric charge
• Plastic rods and fur (real or fake)
are particularly good for
demonstrating electrostatics, the
interactions between electric
charges that are at rest (or nearly
so).
• After we charge both plastic rods
by rubbing them with the piece
of fur, we find that the rods repel
each other.
Electric charge
• When we rub glass rods
with silk, the glass rods
also become charged
and repel each other.
Electric charge
• A charged plastic rod attracts a
charged glass rod; furthermore, the
plastic rod and the fur attract each
other, and the glass rod and the silk
attract each other.
• These experiments and many
others like them have shown that
there are exactly two kinds of
electric charge: The kind on the
plastic rod rubbed with fur
(negative) and the kind on the glass
rod rubbed with silk (positive).
Electric charge and the structure of
matter
• The particles of the atom are
the negative electrons (dark
blue spheres in this figure), the
positive protons (red spheres),
and the uncharged neutrons
(gray spheres).
• Protons and neutrons make up
the tiny dense nucleus, which is
surrounded by electrons.
Atoms and ions
• A neutral atom has the same
number of protons as electrons.
• The electron “shells” are a
schematic representation of the
actual electron distribution, a
diffuse cloud many times larger
than the nucleus.
• A positive ion is an atom with one
or more electrons removed.
• A negative ion is an atom with an
excess of electrons.
Conservation of charge
• The proton and electron have the same magnitude charge.
• The magnitude of charge of the electron or proton is a natural unit of
charge. All observable charge is quantized in this unit.
Electric charge is integer multiple of electron charge unit.
• The universal principle of charge conservation states that the
algebraic sum of all the electric charges in any closed system is
constant.
Conductor: Insulator:
Charge flows freely Almost no charge flows
Metals Most other materials

Some materials are semiconductors.

Conductors and insulators
• Copper is a good conductor of
electricity; nylon is a good insulator.
The copper wire shown conducts
charge between the metal ball and
the charged plastic rod to charge the
ball negatively.
Conductors and insulators
• After it is negatively charged,
the metal ball is repelled by a
negatively charged plastic
rod.
Conductors and insulators
• After it is negatively charged,
the metal ball is attracted by a
positively charged glass rod.
Charging by induction in 4 steps:
Steps 1 and 2
1. Start with an uncharged metal
ball supported by an insulating
stand.
2. When you bring a negatively
charged rod near it, without
actually touching it, the free
electrons in the metal ball are
repelled by the excess
electrons on the rod, and they
shift toward the right, away
from the rod.
Charging by induction in 4 steps:
Steps 3 and 4
3. While the plastic rod is nearby, you
touch one end of a conducting wire to
the right surface of the ball and the
other end to the ground.
4. Now disconnect the wire, and then
remove the rod. A net positive charge is
left on the ball. The earth acquires a
negative charge that is equal in
magnitude to the induced positive
charge remaining on the ball.
Electric forces on uncharged objects
• A charged body can exert forces even on objects that
are not charged themselves.
• If you rub a balloon on the rug and then hold the
balloon against the ceiling, it sticks, even though the
ceiling has no net electric charge.
• After you electrify a comb by
running it through your hair,
you can pick up uncharged bits
of paper or plastic with it.
• How is this possible?
Electric forces on uncharged objects
• The negatively charged plastic comb causes a slight shifting of charge
within the molecules of the neutral insulator, an effect called
polarization.
Electric forces on uncharged objects
• Note that a neutral insulator is also
attracted to a positively charged comb.
• A charged object of either sign exerts an
attractive force on an uncharged
insulator.
Electrostatic painting (application)
• Induced positive charge on the metal object attracts the negatively
charged paint droplets.
Measuring the electric force
between point charges
• Coulomb studied the interaction forces of
charged particles in detail in 1784.
• He used a torsion balance similar to the
one used 13 years later by Cavendish to
study the much weaker gravitational
interaction.
• For point charges, Coulomb found that the
magnitude of the electric force is inversely
proportional to the square of the distance
between the charges.
• (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYSTGX-F1GM)
Coulomb’s Law
• Coulomb’s Law: The
magnitude of the electric
force between two point
charges is directly
proportional to the
product of their charges
and inversely proportional
to the square of the
distance between them.
Coulomb’s Law

Approximate value

Electron charge
Superposition of forces
Coulomb’s law as we have stated it describes only the interaction of
two point charges.
Experiments show that when two charges exert forces simultaneously
on a third charge, the total force acting on that charge is the vector sum
of the forces that the two charges would exert individually.
This important property, called the principle of superposition of forces,
holds for any number of charges.
Electric field: Introduction Slide 1 of
3
• To introduce the concept of
electric field, first consider
the mutual repulsion of two
positively charged bodies A
and B.
Electric field: Introduction Slide 2 of
3
• Next consider body A on its own.

• We can say that body A somehow modifies the properties of the space
at point P.
Electric field: Introduction Slide 3 of
3
• We can measure the electric field produced by A with a test charge.
Electric force produced by an
electric field
The electric field of a point charge
The electric field of a point charge
• Using a unit vector that points away from the origin, we can write a
vector equation that gives both the magnitude and the direction of
the electric field:
Electric field of a point charge
• A point charge q produces an electric
field at all points in space.
• The field strength decreases with
increasing distance.
• The field produced by a positive point
charge points away from the charge.
Electric field of a point charge
• A point charge q produces an
electric field at all points in space.
• The field strength decreases with
increasing distance.
• The field produced by a negative
point charge points toward the
charge.
Superposition of electric fields
• The total electric field at a point is the vector sum of the fields due to
all the charges present.
Electric field lines
• An electric field line is an imaginary line or curve whose tangent at
any point is the direction of the electric field vector at that point.
Electric field lines of a point charge
• Electric field lines show the direction of
the electric field at each point.
• The spacing of field lines gives a
general idea of the magnitude of the
electric field at each point.
Electric field lines of a dipole
• Field lines point away from + charges and toward – charges.
Electric field lines of two equal
positive charges
• At any point, the electric field has a unique direction, so field lines
never intersect.

https://academo.org/demos/electric-field-line-simulator/
Electric dipole
• An electric dipole is a pair of point charges with equal magnitude and
opposite sign separated by a distance d.
• The water molecule as a whole is electrically neutral, but the chemical
bonds within the molecule cause a displacement of charge.
• The result is a net negative charge on the oxygen end of the molecule
and a net positive charge on the hydrogen end, forming an electric
dipole.
Force and torque on a dipole
• When a dipole is placed in a
uniform electric field, the net force
is always zero, but there can be a net
torque on the dipole.
Potential energy of an electric
dipole
The potential energy has its minimum (most
negative) value U = -pE at the stable equilibrium
position, where φ = 0 and p is parallel to E .
The potential energy is maximum when φ=π and
p is antiparallel to E; then U = +pE. .
Field of an electric dipole (as a source of electric field)
https://academo.org/demos/electric-field-line-simulator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7uCAvEhP1E