PHYSICS

CHAPTER 1
ELECTRIC CHARGES AND FIELDS
What is a charge?
Charge is the property associated with
matter due to which it produce and
experience electrical and magnetic effect. Or
we can simply say an intrinsic property of
matter.
Another thing is that the excess or
deficiency of electrons in a matter or body
gives the concept of charge.

 The word Electric comes from a Greek work

electron which means amber in the year
600B.C
 Charge can be symbolized as “Q”, its SI unit
is Coulomb (C) and it is Scalar quantity. The
SI derived unit of electric charge is
the coulomb, which is defined as
an ampere second.
  So the dimension is [AT], A denotes
Ampere and T denote Time. (charge =
current × time)
 Charge always comes with mass.
 Charge is two types
 Positive charge (+)
 Negative charge (-)
Positive Charge:- It is the deficiency of electron
as compare to proton.
Negative Charge:- It is the excess of electron
as compare to proton.
 Mathematically, we can say that a charge is
the number of electrons multiplied by the
charge on 1 electron. Symbolically, it is
Q = ne
 Where Q is a charge, n is a number
of electrons and e is a charge on 1 electron
(1.6 × 10-19C).
 The two very basic natures of electric
charges are
 Like charges repel each other.
 Unlike charges attract each other.
 This means that while protons repel protons,
they attract electrons. The nature of charges is
responsible for the forces acting on them and
coordinating the direction of the flow of them.
The charge on electron and proton is the same in
magnitude which is 1.6 × 10-19 C. The difference is
only the sign that we use to denote them, + and -.
 Differences between mass and charge
1. Charge is of two types, mass is only of one kind
2. There are two types of forces (attraction and repulsion)
between charges, but there is only one kind (attraction)
between masses
3. Charge is quantized, but quantization of mass is not
established so far
4. Charge has SI unit coulomb, the SI unit of mass is kg
5. Charge is conserved, but mass alone is not conserved
(Mass + Energy is conserved)
6. Charge cannot exist without a mass, but mass can exist
without a net charge.
7. Charge carried by a body doesn’t depend upon velocity of
the body. Mass of the body increases with its velocity as
where ‘c’ is velocity of light in vacuum m
is the mass the velocity ‘v’ and ‘m0’ is rest
mass of the body.
DEFINITION OF ELECTRIC CHARGE:-
Electric Charge is nothing but the amount of
energy or electrons that pass from one body to
another by different modes like conduction,
induction or other specific methods. This is a basic
electric charge definition.

Electric charge is a physical property of

matter that causes it to experience a force
when kept in an electromagnetic field. Positive
and negative are the two types of electric
charges, commonly carried by charge carriers
protons and electrons. When the net charge of
an object equals to zero, the object is said to
be neutral. The movements of electric charges
are responsible for the production of one of
the many types of energy known as electrical
energy.

 Electric Charge is defined as, “The

property of subatomic particles that causes
it to experience a force when placed in an
electromagnetic field.”
The study of electricity is divided into 3
different branches as:

Electrostatics: It is the study of the force that

acts between point charges.

Electromagnetism: It is the study of the

forces that act on the charges that are in
motion.

Electric Current: It is the study of the form of

energy that is associated with the flow of
charge.
How is Electric Charge Measured?
The electric charge is measured using coulomb. 1
coulomb is the quantity of charge transferred in one
second. Given by:
Q = I.t
Where,
Q =is the electric charge
I =is the electric current
t =is the time.
The physical properties of matter
which allows it to experience a special
Definition kind of force when kept under the
influence of the electromagnetic field
is called Electric Charge
Symbol Q
Formula Q = I.t
SI unit Coulomb
Elementary charge
Other
Faraday (F)
units
ampere-hour (AT)
Conductors and Insulators
How many of you have experienced a feeling of
electric shock while opening the window of your
car or coming in contact with wires in wet
condition? Isn’t that a bit scary? But, why is that?
Why don’t you get similar experiences with
wooden materials? It is because they are
insulators.
The reason you get a shock is that there occurs a
flow of electrons from one body to another when
they come in contact via rubbing or moving
against each other. Shock is basically a mini feeling
of current passing through your body. So now, let
us look at these concepts in greater detail.
What are Conductors?
Conductors are the materials or substances which
allow electricity to flow through them. They are
able to conduct electricity because they allow
electrons to flow inside them very easily.
Conductors have this property of allowing the
transition of heat or light from one source to
another.

Metals, humans, earth, and animal bodies are all

conductors. This is the reason we get electric
shocks! The main reason is that being a good
conductor, our human body allows a resistance-free
path for the current to flow from wire to our body.

Conductors have free electrons on its surface which

allows current to pass through. This is the reason
why conductors are able to conduct electricity.
Examples of Conductors
 Silver is the best conductor of electricity.
However, it is costly and so, we don’t use silver
in industries and transmission of electricity.
 Copper, Brass, Steel, Gold, and Aluminium are
good conductors of electricity. We use them
mostly in electric circuits and systems in the
form of wires.
 Mercury is an excellent liquid conductor that
finds use in many instruments.
 Gases are not good conductors of electricity as
the particles of matter are quite far away and
thus, they are unable to conduct electrons.
Applications of Conductors
Conductors are quite useful in many ways. They
find used in many real-life applications like:

 Mercury is a common ingredient in

thermometer to check the temperature of the
body.
 Aluminium finds use in making foils to
store food and also in the production of fry pans
to store heat quickly.
 Iron is common in vehicle engine manufacturing
to conduct heat.
 The plate of an iron is made up of steel to
absorb heat briskly.
 Conductors find their use in car radiators to
eradicate heat away from the engine.

Insulators
Insulators are the materials or substances which resist
or don’t allow the current to flow through them. They
are mostly solid in nature and are finding use in a
variety of systems. They do not allow the flow of heat
as well. The property which makes insulators different
from conductors is its resistivity.
Wood, cloth, glass, mica, and quartz are some good
examples of insulators. Insulators are also
protectors as they give protection against heat, sound
and of course passage of electricity. Insulators don’t
have any free electrons and it is the main reason why
they don’t conduct electricity.
Examples of Insulators
 Glass is the best insulator as it has the highest
resistivity.
 Plastic is a good insulator and it finds its use in
making a number of things.
 Rubber is a common component in making
tyres, fire-resistant clothes and slippers. This is
because it is a very good insulator.
Applications of Insulators
Being resistive to flow of electron, insulators find
application worldwide in a number of ways. Some
of the common uses include:

 Thermal Insulators, disallow heat to move from

one place to another. We use them in making
thermoplastic bottles, in fireproofing ceilings
and walls.
 Sound Insulators help in controlling noise level,
as they are good in absorbance of sound.
Therefore, we use them in buildings, conference
halls, and buildings to make them noise-free
 Electrical Insulators hinder the flow of electron
or passage of current through them. We use
them extensively in circuit boards, high-voltage
systems and also in coating electric wire and
cables.
Difference between Conductors and
Insulators
Let us look at the basic difference between
conductors and insulators in a nutshell.

Conductors Insulators

A conductor allows current to flow Insulators don’t allow current to flow

through it. through it.

Electric charge exists on the surface

Electric charges are absent in insulator.
of conductors

Conductor don’t store energy when Insulators store energy when kept in a
kept in a magnetic field magnetic field

Thermal conductivity ( heat

Thermal conductivity of an insulator is
allowance) of a conductor is very
very low
high

The resistance of a conductor is

The resistance of insulator is very high
very low

Copper, Aluminium, and Mercury Wood, paper and ceramic are some
are some conductors insulators

Conductors are used in making Insulators are used in insulating

electrical equipment. electrical equipment for safety purpose
Basic Properties of Electric Charge
There are certain other basic properties that an
electric charge follows from the electric charge
definition. They are
1. Charges are additive in nature
2. A charge is a conserved quantity
3. Quantization of charge
Let us now look at these properties in greater
detail.
Charges are Additive in Nature
This means that they behave like scalars and we
can add them directly. As an example, let
us consider a system which consists of two charges
namely q1 and q2. The total charge of the system
will be the algebraic sum of q1 and q2 i.e.q1 + q2.
The same thing holds for a number of charges in a
system. Let’s say a system contains
q1,q2,q3,q4 ………. qn, then the net charge of the
entire system will be = q1 + q2 + q3 + q4 + ……. +
qn
Charge is a Conserved Quantity
This implies that charge can neither be created
nor be destroyed but can be transferred from one
body to another by certain methods like conduction
and induction. Does this remind you of the law of
conservation of mass? As charging involves
rubbing two bodies, it is actually a transfer of
electrons from one body to another.
For example, if 5 C is the total charge of the
system, then we can redistribute it as 1C, 2C, and
2C or in any other possible permutation. For
example, sometimes a neutrino decays to give one
electron and one proton by default in nature. The
net charge of the system will be zero as electrons
and protons are of the same magnitude and
opposite signs.
Quantization of Charge
This signifies the fact that charge is a quantized
quantity and we can express it as integral multiples
of the basic unit of charge (e – charge on one
electron). Suppose charge on a body is q, then we
can write it as
q = ne , where n is an integer and not fraction
or irrational number, like ‘n’ can be any positive or
negative integer like 1, 2, 3, -5, etc.
The basic unit of charge is the charge that an
electron or proton carries. By convention, we take
charge of the electron as negative and denote it as
“-e” and charge on a proton is simply “e”.
1 A Coulomb of charge contains around 6 ×
1018 electrons. Particles don’t have a high
magnitude of charge and we use micro coulombs
or milli coulombs in order to express charge of a
particle.
1 μC = 10-6 C
1 mC = 10-3 C
We can use the principle of quantization to
calculate the total amount of charge present in a
body and also to calculate a number of electrons or
protons in a body. Suppose a system has n1 number
of electrons and n2 number of protons, then the
total amount of charge will be n2e – n1e.
Solved Example For You
Question: The charges of a system are +3 C, + 2
C, + 5 C and -4 C respectively. What would be
the net charge of the system?
Solution: We know that the net charge of a system
is the algebraic sum of individual charges. Let the
total charge of the system be “Q”. Then,
Q = 3 C + 2 C + 5C – 4C
=6C
 NOTE:- (Semiconductors offer resistance
to movement of charges which is between
conductors and non-conductors. The process
 where excess charge from a body or object
goes to ground, by touching the charge
carrying conducting body to earth is called
earthing or grounding.)

Different Way of Charge

1. Charging by Conduction
Conduction just means that the two objects will
come into actual physical contact with each other
(this is why it is sometimes called “charging by
contact”).
If the two objects are brought close enough that
an arc of electricity jumps between them, it counts
as conduction.
● let’s assume we have a negatively charged metal
object and an uncharged metal object (Illustration
a). They are similar objects, and each is on an
insulating stand so that we can move them around
without them interacting with anything else.
● We bring the two objects close together. We will
see a separation of charge happen in the neutral
object as negative electrons are repelled to the
right hand side (Illustration b).
○ At this time, they are not touching and no
charges have been transferred.
● We allow the two objects to touch (Illustration
c).
○ Some of the negative charge will transfer
over to the uncharged metal object. This happens
since the negative charges on the first object are
repelling each other... by moving onto the second
object they spread away from each other.
● When the negative object is removed, it will not
be as negative as it was (Illustration d).
○ Both of the objects have some of the negative
charge… this depends on the size of the objects
and the materials they are made of. Since they are
similar in this example they have the same
magnitude charge.
Overall the total negative charge remains constant.
● We started with six negative charges, and we
ended up with a total of six negative.
● Notice that this also means a negative object
causes a negative charge on the other object.
What would happen if you used a positive rod at
the start to touch the metal sphere?
● The same sort of thing, except that the neutral
object will transfer electrons to the positively
charged
object.
In any of these cases, the results depend on the
materials being conductors or insulators.
● In the examples I've given so far, all the
materials have been conductors, so the charges
move easily
from one to the other and spread out.
 ● If the materials used were insulators, only the
specific areas that actually touched would show
any
change in charge. That's because the charges
can't move through the insulators easily.

2. Charging by Friction
Up to this point we have really only discussed the
oldest way to give an object a charge.
● Rubbing two different materials together, a
process known as charging by friction (AKA
charging by rubbing), is the simplest way to give
something a charge.
○ This is what you do every time you drag your
feet along a carpet so you can reach out and zap
someone's ear.
■ Your feet in socks and the carpet are
doing charging by friction.
● Since the two objects are made of different
materials, their atoms will hold onto their electrons
with different strengths.
● As they pass over each other the electrons with
weaker bonds are “ripped” off one material and
collect on the other material.
 3. Charging by Induction
It is possible to charge a conductor without
touching it. You do have to follow some special
procedures.
● Most important is the use of a grounding wire.
○ A grounding wire is simply a conductor that
connects the object to the ground.
○ Think of the earth as a huge reservoir of
charge… it can both gain or donate electrons as
needed.
Depending on what the situation is, either
electrons will travel up the grounding wire to the
object
being charged, or travel down to the ground.
Charging by induction is a more complex process
than conduction, as the example below shows…
 Figure a: The neutral object is on an
insulating stand. It also has a ground wire
attached to it.
 Figure b: We bring a negative object
nearby. This will cause the electrons to be
pushed as far away as possible, and since they
are free to move, they do just that. They will
travel down the ground wire.
 Figure c: This step is VERY important.
Keeping the negative object nearby we snip the
ground wire. Now there is no way for the
electrons to travel back up they wire to the
originally neutral object. If we had skipped this
step and just moved the negative object away
without snipping the ground wire, the negative
 charges would have just gone back up the wire
and it would be neutral again.
 Figure d: We remove the negative object…
now the the original object has a net positive
charge.
The same sort of thing happens if you bring a
positively charged object near to a grounded
object.
In that case, electrons would come up the
grounding wire to be closer to the object. This
would leave the other object with a negative
charge.
Notice that when you charge by induction you
get the opposite charge on the metal object.