ELECTROSTATICS

11.1 ELECTROSTATICS

CONTENTS

 Electric Charges
 Electric Field
 Insulator vs Conductor
 Charging Insulator by Friction / Rubbing
 Charging Conductor
 Discharging
 Hazards of Electrostatics
 Applications of Electrostatics

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What is electrostatics?

 Electrostatics is the study of static electricity.

 Static electricity is stationary electric charge that builds up on an insulator or an
insulated conductor

ELECTRIC CHARGES

 All matter is made up of atoms which consist of electrons orbiting a nucleus

(containing protons and neutrons).

 Electrons: negatively charged particles;

 Protons: positively charged particles;
 Neutrons: neutral or uncharged particles.

 When an object is neutral, it means there are equal number of negatively

charged electrons and positive charges.
 When an object is positively charged, it means there are more positive charges
than electrons.
 When an object is negatively charged, it means there are more electrons than
positive charges.
 Note that only electrons can be transferred to make the object become
charged. Positive charges do not move!

Two types of electric charges

There are only two types of electric charges

 Positive charges
 Negative charges (electron)

SI Unit of charge: coulomb, C

Note that one electron is not 1C. An electron has 1.6 x 10-19 C of charge. We need
6.25 x 1018 electrons to make up 1 C!

Law of electrostatics

Like charges repel, unlike charges attract.

Van de Graff Generator

- The way you may have seen static generated at school is with a Van de Graff
Generator (see diagram). The motor turns the rubber band and friction
between the band and the rollers starts to build up huge amounts of charge.

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- This charge is then deposited on the metal dome, which is a conductor, but
is insulated from everything else (like birds sitting on a power line), so it is
able to store the charge.
- The charge can build up in a big way, causing voltages as high as 50,000
Volts. A shock from this doesn't kill you, as the actual amount of charged
particles stored on the dome is so small.

When you rub your hair (e.g. with a balloon or jumper), or hold onto a Van de
Graff generator while you are insulated yourself, your hair stands on end (unless
it's full of super strength gel!). Because each of the hairs has the same charge,
they try to get as far away from each other as possible.

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ELECTRIC FIELD

Content  

 Electric Field
 Field Pattern between Two Charges
 Field Pattern between Parallel Plates  

Electric Field

 An electric field is a region where an electric charge experiences an electric force.

 The direction of electric field is the direction of force on a small positive charge.
 An electric field is represented by lines with arrows to indicate the direction of force.

Field patterns between two charges

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Note that X is the neutral point where the electric fields from both charges cancel
out each other. There is no electric effect at X.

Note:

 Electric field lines must not cross each other.

 The closer the field lines, the stronger the field is. 

Field patterns between charged parallel plates

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Note 

 Arc only occurs at the edge of parallel plates.

 The electric field between parallel plates are uniform, thus parallel electric
field lines.

Insulators vs Conductors

Types Insulators Conductors

Definition Materials where electrons remain on Materials that allow
the surface of it and do not move electrons to move freely
about freely within the material. within the material.
What happen when When electrons are gained or lost in When electrons are gained
adding or removing an insulator, the electron remains at or lost in a conductor, the
electrons? the region where it was transferred. electrons will be
i.e it is “localized”. redistributed.
Example Non-metals like plastic, paper, wood Metals like copper, iron,
steel, graphite
Charging method Charging by Friction (Rubbing) Charging by Contact,
Charging by Induction
Discharging Method Heating, Humid conditions Earthing

Example:

A neutral light conducting ball, suspended between two light conducting charged
plates, touches the positively charged plate as shown. Describe the subsequent
motion of the conducting ball between the conducting plates?

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When the conducting neutral ball touches the positive plate, the electrons in the
neutral ball will be attracted to the side near the positive plate and move into the
plate. This causes the ball to have excess positive charges and becomes
positively charged. 
Since like charges repel, it will repel towards negative plate and touch it. 
Again, upon touching, the electrons in the ball will be repelled away and electrons
from negative plate will move into the ball to neutralize the positive charges in
the ball. This causes the ball to have excess electron and becomes negatively
charged. 
Since like charges repel, it will repel towards positive plate and whole process
repeats. 
The conducting ball will oscillate to and fro between plates until the battery is
depleted.

If the ball used here changes to be an insulating ball,

When the insulating neutral ball touches the positive plate, the electrons in the
neutral ball will be attracted to the side near the positive plate. 
Unlike conductor, these electrons are not able to move into the plate. This will
cause a weak attractive force between the positive plate and the neutral
insulating ball. Since the ball is light, it will be attached to the positively charged
plate

CHARGING INSULATORS BY FRICTION / RUBBING

Rubbing causes a transfer of electrons from one object to another.

If X loses electrons, X becomes positively charged.

If Y gains electrons, Y becomes negatively charged.

Process

Before rubbing Rubbing After rubbing

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Both are electrically neutral. Electrons are Glass rod has excess electrons
i.e same number of electrons and transferred from => negatively charged,
positive charges. cloth to glass rod Cloth has excess positive charges
=> positively charged

Note:

 Number of electrons transferred must be same as number of positive

charges left unpaired. 
 Only some electrons (not all electrons) are transferred from one object to
another object.
 Which object becomes positively charged or negatively charged, we don’t
need to memorize. It will be stated in the question.
 Charging by friction is effective for insulators only, but difficult for
conductors.
Yet, we can still charge a conductor by this method but we have to hold the
conductor with an insulator like rubber glove. 

Example:

Describe how the plastic becomes negatively charged and the cloth becomes
positively charged after rubbing.

Answer:

Electrons are transferred from cloth to plastic due to charging by friction. 

Plastic gains electrons and becomes negatively charged while Cloth loses electrons
and becomes positively charged.

CHARGING CONDUCTORS

Two Methods used:  

 Charging by Contact
 Charging by Induction  

Charging by Contact

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Courtesy of PhysicsClassroom

Procedure:

1. A metal sphere with excess electrons is brought near a neutral object. 

2. Upon contact, electrons from sphere flow to neutral object and spread
uniformly.
3. Sphere has now has less excess electrons and the object now has negative
charges.

Note that the charge in the conductor is always same as the charging source.

Charging by Induction

Induction is a method used to charge a conductor without any contact with the
charging body.

CHARGING A CONDUCTOR POSITIVE BY INDUCTION

Step 1: Bring a negatively charged rod near the metal conductor on an insulating
stand.
Free electrons in the metal will be repelled away from the rod as like charges
repel. Separation of charges occurs.

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Step 2: Without removing the rod, earth the negatively charged side of conductor
by touching it with your hand.
Free electrons will flow down into earth from this side.

Step 3: With the rod still in place, remove hand first from conductor to stop
earthing process. Then remove the charged rod.
The positive charges will be redistributed and conductor is now positively charged.

CHARGING A CONDUCTOR NEGATIVE BY INDUCTION

Step 1: Bring a positively charged rod near the metal conductor on an insulating
stand.
Free electrons in the metal will be attracted to the side near to the rod as unlike
charges attract.

Step 2: Without removing the rod, earth the positively charged side of conductor
by touching it with your hand.
Free electrons moving up will neutralize the positive charges on this side.

Step 3: With the rod still in place, remove hand first from conductor to stop
earthing process. Then remove the charged rod.
The electrons will be redistributed and conductor is now negatively charged.

Note: 

 An insulating stand is needed to prevent electrons from flowing to earth or

electrons flowing from earth to metal conductor during charging process.
 We have to remove the hand first then charged rod. If do it reversely (remove
rod then hand), electrons will flow to earth. Discharging occurs and conductor is
not charged. 
 Number of charges induced in conductor should be less or equal to the number
of charges in the charging source (rod). 

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 The charge induced in the conductor is always opposite to the charging source.

Charging two metal conductors by induction

Step 1: Two conductors on Step 2: Bring a negatively charged rod

insulating stand are touching near A. Electrons in both A and B will be
each other. repelled to the far end of B.
A has excess positive charges while B has
excess electrons.

Step 4: Remove the rod.

A is positively charged; B is negatively
charged.
Step 3: Without removing the
A and B have same amount of opposite
rod, separate A and B.
charges.

 Note that we have to separate them first before removing the rod. If not, they
will neutralize themselves and become neutral.

TRY THIS QUESTION

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Gold leaf electroscope

An electroscope is a devise used to detect an electric charge.

DIAGRAM: Gold leaf electroscope.

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Functions of a gold leaf electroscope:

1. To detect charge
2. To distinguish between positive and negative charge
3. To indicate approximate size of a charge
4. To test if an object is a conductor or an insulator

How the gold leaf works

When a charged rod is brought in contact or close to the metal cap at the top,
charge spreads down to the metal rod and leaf. This means that both the leaf and
plate will have the same charge. Similar charges repel each other and so the leaf
rises away from the plate - the bigger the charge the more the leaf rises.
The leaf can be made to fall again by touching the disc - you have earthed the
electroscope. An earth terminal prevents the case from becoming live.

CHARGING AN ELECTROSCOPE

The electroscope can be charged in two ways:

(a) by contact - a charged rod is touched on the surface of the cap and some of
the charge is transferred to the electroscope. This is not a very effective method
of charging the electroscope.

(b) by induction - a charged rod is brought near to the cap and then the
electroscope is earthed, the rod is then removed.

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EXPLANATION: CHARGING AN ELECTROSCOPE BY INDUCTION

N.B. for a charge of a given sign start with an inducing charge of the opposite kind.

1.Charging an electroscope positively by induction

 Bring a negatively charged rod near cap.
 Free electrons are repelled down into the metal plate and gold leaf.
 The positive and negative charges become separated.
 The cap becomes positive.
 The metal plate and gold leaf become negative. The leaf diverges from plate.
 The cap is earthed by touching it with a finger, so that some of the electrons
are conducted out of the cap. The leaf collapses.
 Remove the finger from the cap. The electrons cannot flow back into
electroscope. As a result the electroscope is positively charged because it has
fewer electrons than protons.
 Remove the rod. The leaf diverges due to the positive charge

2.Charging an electroscope negatively by induction

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 Bring a positively charged rod near cap.
 Free electrons are attracted by the positive rod upwards to the cap.
 The positive and negative charges become separated.
 The cap becomes negative.
 The metal plate and gold leaf become positive. The leaf diverges from plate.
 The cap is earthed by touching it with a finger, so that electrons are attracted
from earth into electroscope. The leaf collapses.
 Remove the finger from the cap. The electrons cannot flow back into earth. As a
result the electroscope is negatively charged because it has more electrons than
protons.
 Remove the rod. The leaf diverges due to the negative charge.

EARTHING

If an object becomes charged (due to a build-up of electrons say), and the object
is then ‘earthed’ (connected to earth), the electrons will separate as much as
possible, resulting in most of them quite literally ‘going to earth’.

The object then becomes neutral.

DISCHARGING

Discharging is a process to neutralize a charged object by removing the excess

charges.

Methods of discharging Insulators and conductors

Insulators

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(1) Heating
The intense heat causes the air surrounding the charged object to be ionized. The
ions in the surrounding air then neutralize the excess charges in the charged
object.

(2) Humid Conditions

The water vapour in the air helps to remove the excess charges on the charged
insulator.

Conductors

Earthing: A charged conductor can be neutralized by earthing it. 

This is to provide a path for excess electrons to flow away from the negatively
charged conductor or for electrons to flow from earth to the positively charged
conductor. This will cause the conductor to lose its charge and become neutral. 

This can be easily done by touching the charged conductor with our hand.

HAZARDS OF ELECTROSTATICS

(1) Lightning

 Friction between water molecules and air molecules create electrostatic charges
in a thundercloud.
 Separation of charges occurs within the cloud by induction. The top of the cloud
becomes positive and the bottom negative.
 The highly charged clouds ionize the air around them, which causes the air to
become conductive.
 The charges in the cloud are discharged either within the cloud, from cloud to
cloud, from cloud to air or from cloud to ground (earth).

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 Since the Earth (ground) is at a higher potential than the clouds, the negative
charges (electrons) in the cloud will be discharged to the ground, through the
ionized (conductive) air, to the nearest or sharpest and tallest object.
 During the discharge, the gigantic electrostatic spark (lightning) produces light,
heat and sound. The heat warms up air which expands rapidly to produce the
sound (thunder).

Dangers of lightning
 High voltage; causes flow of current and produces much heat.
 Flow of current through people/animals/plants causes electrocution and death.
 Heating effect; causes outbreak of fire and destruction of structures/buildings.
 Heating effect also causes rapid expansion of moisture inside structures which
causes them to split apart.

How the dangers are reduced – Precautions against lightning

1) Avoid being the tallest conductor at a place; lightning strikes tallest object in its
path;
2) Do not touch water; water conducts lightning charge;
3) Avoid standing near a lone tree; lightning strikes tallest or prominent object;
4) Do not touch metal objects; metals are conductors of electricity;
5) Disconnect roof top television aerials; can act as a circuit;
6) Do not use cell phones because they attract lightning.
7) Lightning conductors are fitted on top of tall buildings to provide a discharge
path into earth for excess electrons in the air.

The principles of a lightning conductor

A lightning conductor should be:

1) Taller than the object being protected;

2) End in several spikes.
3) A good conductor of electricity;
4) Earthed (connected to the ground).

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How a lightning conductor works

 A lightning conductor provides a low-resistance path to ground that can be

used to conduct a large electrical current when lightning strikes occur.
 If lightning strikes, the lightning conductor carries the harmful electrical
current (electrons) away from the structure and safely to earth (ground).
 The lightning conductor is a good conductor and thus allows the current to flow
to ground without causing any heat damage.

(2) Electrostatic discharge in gas tankers

Electric charges can accumulate on trucks due to friction between road and tyres
of truck. Sparks may be produced when discharging happens. This will cause any
flammable materials that the trucks are carrying to catch fire or explode.

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How the danger is reduced?
Connect a metal chain at the rear end of truck to the ground to provide a
discharging path for excess charges.

APPLICATION OF ELECTROSTATICS

 Spray Painting
 Electrostatic Precipitator
 Laser Printer  

Spray painting

As the spray leaves the nozzle, it is being charged by friction. Since the droplets
all have same charge, they will repel each other as like charges repel, and thus,
they spread out evenly.

Advantages

 Good adhesion of paint onto the object;

 Smooth and uniform coating of paint;
 Cost efficient as it reduces the wastage of paint.

Similar principle is used in Crop Sprayer as well.

Electrostatic Precipitator

This is used to remove flue-ash emitted from coal-fired power stations.

Mechanism:

 Dust and ash particles pass through the fine wires and become negatively
charged. 

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 The negatively charged dust and ash particles are attracted to the positively
charged plate since unlike charges attract. 
 The dust and ash particles are then scraped and removed from the plates.

Laser Printer

Courtesy of Answers.com

 When rotating, the drum surface becomes positively charged.

 The laser beam then casts an image of the data to the rotating drum and
exposes other parts of drum surface to laser to be discharged. By doing so,
it creates a positively charged pattern which is similar to the print pattern.
 The negatively-charged toner is then attracted to the positively-charged
pattern on the drum as unlike charges attract, and is transferred to the
paper.

The Gold Leaf Electroscope

You must know the structure of an Electroscope and list some of its functions.

If the GLE is uncharged, the leaves will fall together.

If the leaves become charged – either positively or negatively – the leaves will stand apart (why?).

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Functions:

5. To detect charge
6. To distinguish between positive and negative charge
7. To indicate approximate size of a charge
8. To test if an object is a conductor or an insulator

How would you use an electroscope to demonstrate each of these?

Can you figure out why the case needs to be metal (some designs have a timber case but have a metal
strip all along the inside)?

Van de Graaf generator

Friction between the moving rubber belt and the metal roller produces positive
charges on the belt.

The positive charges are then carried up to the dome where they attract negative
charges to the inside of the dome and repel positive charges to the outside of the
dome.

This discharges the belt, but leaves an excess of positive charges on the dome.

As the amount of positive charges accumulate on the dome, its voltage increases.

TRY THESE QUESTIONS

1. [2002]

Read the following passage and answer the accompanying questions.

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Benjamin Franklin designed the lightning conductor. This is a thick copper strip running up the
outside of a tall building. The upper end of the strip terminates in one or more sharp spikes above
the highest point of the building. The lower end is connected to a metal plate buried in moist
earth. The lightning conductor protects a building from being damaged by lightning in a number
of ways.

During a thunderstorm, the value of the electric field strength in the air can be very high near a
pointed lightning conductor. If the value is high enough, ions, which are drawn towards the
conductor, will receive such large accelerations that, by collision with air molecules, they will
produce vast additional numbers of ions. Therefore the air is made much more conducting and
this facilitates a flow of current between the air and the ground. Thus, charged clouds become
neutralised and lightning strikes are prevented. Alternatively, in the event of the cloud suddenly
discharging, the lightning strike will be conducted through the copper strip, thus protecting the
building from possible catastrophic consequences.

Raised umbrellas and golf clubs are not to be recommended during thunderstorms for obvious
reasons.

On high voltage electrical equipment, pointed or roughly-cut surfaces should be avoided.

(Adapted from “Physics – a teacher’s handbook”, Dept. of Education and Science.)

(a) Why is a lightning conductor made of copper?

(b) Why do the ions near the lightning conductor accelerate?
(c) How does the presence of ions in the air cause the air to be more conducting?
(d) How do the charged clouds become neutralised?
(e) What are the two ways in which a lightning conductor prevents a building from being damaged by
lightning?
(f) Why are raised umbrellas and golf clubs not recommended during thunderstorms?
(g) Explain why pointed surfaces should be avoided when using high voltage electrical equipment.

1. SOLUTION

(a) It is a good conductor.

(b) They experience a large electrostatic force of either attraction or repulsion.
(c) The ions act as charge carriers.
(d) Electrons flow to or from the ground through the air.
(e) Neutralises charged clouds

It conducts charges to earth.

(f) Because they act as lightning conductors.

(g) Sparking is more likely to occur from these points due to point discharge.

Structured Question Worked Solutions

1. The diagram shows a metal sphere S mounted on an insulating stand

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Describe a simple test you could perform, and which does not alter any charge
there may be on the sphere, to determine whether or not the sphere is
charged.

Given that the sphere is charged, how could you test whether the charge is
positive or negative, without altering the charge on the sphere?

Solution

1. Bring an uncharged conducting sphere P suspended on an insulating thread close

to but not touching S. If P does not move towards S, then S is uncharged. If P
moves towards S, then S is charged.

Using P with a positive charge, bring it slowly from a far distance towards S.
Observe for any deflection of P along the way. If P is deflected away from S, then
S is positively charged. If P is attracted towards S, then S is negatively charged.

2. State briefly how you would give an electric charge to

a. a glass rod
b. a copper disc attached to the end of a nylon rod, assuming that you have
available a charged polythene tile.

Solution

2a. By rubbing the glass rod with another insulating material such as plastic or a
cloth, we can charge the rod by friction.

2b. First place the charged polythene tile close to but not touching the disc and
then earth the disc once. The disc now has an induced charge of sign opposite to
that of the charged polythene tile.

3. Three copper spheres are placed near each other in air. The large sphere
carries a positive charge and the two small spheres touch each other, as shown.

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The two small spheres are pulled apart, using their insulated handles, and then
taken well away from the large sphere, as shown

a. The charge on the large sphere has been drawn for you. On the diagrams
above draw in the charges, if any, on each of the smaller spheres.

b. Explain why energy is needed to separate the two small spheres.

Solution

a.

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b. The two small spheres are oppositely charged, so there is a force of attraction
between them. Energy is thus needed to overcome this force to separate these two
spheres.

4. An electrically charged sphere C is brought near a small uncharged

conducting sphere S suspended as shown in Fig. 1. S is first attracted towards C
until it touches the surface of C and then repelled to the position shown in Fig.
2

ai. Explain why S is first attracted towards C

aii. Explain why S is repelled after touching the surface of C

b. On Fig 2 mark and label each force acting on S

c. When a bunsen flame is passed beneath S, the sphere falls back towards C.
Suggest why this happens

Solution

4ai. Since C is positively charged, it will induce negative charges on the side of S
facing C. As unlike charges attract, S is attract towards C.

4aii. Upon touching C, S's negative charges get transferred onto C to neutralise
some of the positive charges. S becomes positively charged. The like charges in C
and S repel each other.

4b.

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4c. The flame ionizes the air surrounding S which neutralises the charges on S. This
eliminates the force of repulsion.

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