LECTURE 2:

INTRO. TO ELECTRIC
CHARGE AND
C O U L O M B ’ S L AW

Instructor: Shadman Salam, PhD

BRAC University
 Discovery of Electricity
• 600 BC: Ancient Greek women discovers strange effect!
- frogs jumped if touched after rubbing one’s fingers with amber (fossilized tree resin).
Unknown to them, this was due to static electricity.
• Early 18th Century CE: People realized there were two types of electricity. Rub
object 1 with glass and rub object 2 with rubber or amber – object 1 now has ‘A-
type’, while object 2 has ‘B-type’ electricity such that

A repels A, B repels B, but A attracts B

• Mid 18th Century CE: Benjamin Franklin proved lightning was electrical in nature.
He called the phenomena “electric fire”. He concluded all substances had this “fire”
in them and:
• too much electric fire ⇒ positive charge
• too little electric fire ⇒ negative charge
• Franklin decided: Type-A electric fire is positive, Type-B is negative!
• He also discovered through experiments:
• Objects with more electric fire, attracts/repels more strongly (and vice versa)
• Some objects makes it easy for the electric fire to flow through them. We call
these conductors. Some make it hard for the passage of electric fire, we call them
insulators.
• We now know this electric fire very well: it is the electric charge.
Electric Charge and Atomic Structure
• On the left is an overly simplistic image of the
Bohr-model of the atom.
• Mostly empty space, an extremely tiny
nucleus in the middle: nucleus is 10−5 times
smaller than the atomic radius:
• if stadium is 100 m long, the nucleus is 1
mm in diameter!
• Nucleus → 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠 + 𝑛𝑒𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑠 (𝑛𝑢𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑠) →
bound by strong nuclear force. Most of the atom’s
mass comes from these;
• protons, neutrons: composed of quarks.
• Electrons → found somewhere around the
nucleus at any given time. These are very light
fundamental particles.
• Atoms are neutral: contain equal number of
protons and electrons.
• Can gain/lose electrons to become
negative/positive ions.
 Properties of Electric Charge
1. Two kinds of electric charge: positive and negative. Like
charges repel and unlike charges attract.
2. Electric charge is conserved: in any process the total amount of
charge remains the same.
3. Electric charge is quantized: means it comes in discrete
amounts. The smallest “amount” of charge is the electron
charge,
e = 1.60 × 10–19 C
where “C” stands for Coulomb, the SI unit of electric charge.
Charge is often measured in millicoulombs (mC) [10−3 ] or
microcoulombs (μC) [10−6 ] or nanocoulombs (nC) 10−9 .
4. The electric charge of an object may be polarized: means that
part of the object has a greater negative charge while another
part of it has a greater positive charge. Because of this, a
charged object can attract a neutral object due to induced
polarization.
You can “induce charge” on a neutral material! One way to do so is
called charging by friction.
There are at least two other ways for a neutral object to become charged.
1) By conduction

Conduction occurs on a neutral object when a charged object is in contact with it. During conduction, the
same charge is created in a neutral object. Charging by conduction is considered permanent since electrons
physically move to the new object until that object is grounded.

2) By induction

We can induce a charge in a neutral object by moving a charged object close to it. Induction creates
a temporary charge separation in the other object without any contact. This is considered temporary because no
electrons are transferred, and neutrality returns when the nearby charged object is removed.

What happens when you ground (or “ earth” ) the yellow object?
This is often the
earth
Whatever the charging process, only electrons are transferred
or move closer to/further away between objects, NEVER
protons.
 Discussion Question 1
A metal ball hangs from the ceiling by an insulating thread. The ball is attracted
to a positive-charged rod held near the ball. The charge of the ball must be:

a) positive
b) negative
c) neutral
d) positive or neutral
e) negative or neutral
 Coulomb’s Law for Point Charges
Protons, Electrons: modelled as small dimensionless spheres for simplicity – this is the point charge model.

F21 F12 F21 F12

+Q1, M1 -Q2, M2 +Q1, M1 +Q2, M2

• Attraction and Repulsion between charges – facilitated by electric force.

𝑄1 𝑄2
𝐹Ԧ12 = 𝐹Ԧ21 = 𝑘 (Coulomb’s Law)
𝑟Ԧ2 − 𝑟Ԧ1 2
𝑄1 , 𝑄2 : Charge in Coulombs, 𝑟Ԧ2 − 𝑟Ԧ1 : Dsiplacement Vector from 𝑄1 to 𝑄2 , 𝑟Ԧ2 − 𝑟Ԧ1 : Distance between 𝑄1 & 𝑄2 ,
1
𝑘 = 4𝜋𝜖 = 9.0 × 109 𝑁𝑚2 /𝐶 2 (𝜖0 is the permittivity of free space)
0

𝐺𝑀1 𝑀2
• Recall: 𝐹𝐺 = 𝑟Ƹ (Newton’s Law of Gravitation). Notice any similarities??
𝑟2

• Differences: 1. Gravity “sucks” (always) but Coulomb force can both attract and repel.
2. Gravity extremely weak: F𝐺 = 6.67 × 10−11 𝑁 𝑖𝑓 𝑀1 = 𝑀2 = 1𝑘𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟 = 1𝑚 while
𝐹𝐸 = 9 × 109 𝑁 for unit charges separated by 1𝑚.
 Discussion Question 2

Which of the arrows best represents the direction of the net force on charge +Q due
to the other two charges?

a)
b)
c)

d)
d
+2Q +Q e)

+4Q
 Discussion Question 1 – Answer
A metal ball hangs from the ceiling by an insulating thread. The ball is attracted
to a positive-charged rod held near the ball. The charge of the ball must be:

a) positive
Clearly, the ball will be attracted if its
b) negative charge is negative. However, even if the
c) neutral ball is neutral, the charges in the ball can

d) positive or neutral be separated by induction (polarization),

leading to a net attraction.
e) negative or neutral
 Discussion Question 2 – Answer

Which of the arrows best represents the direction of the net force on charge +Q due
to the other two charges?
The charge +2Q repels +Q towards

a) the right. The charge +4Q repels

b)
+Q upwards, but with a stronger
c)
force. Therefore, the net force is up
d) and to the right, but mostly up.
d (Vector Addition):
+2Q +Q e)

𝑭𝒏𝒆𝒕
d 𝑭𝟒𝑸,𝑸

+4Q 𝑭𝟐𝑸,𝑸
Problem: Three charged (massless) point particles are arranged as shown,
forming a right triangle. What is the total electrostatic force on the particle
labeled q3?
r23 = 4 m
q2 q3 q1= 6.00  10−9 C
 q2 = −2.00  10−9 C
r12 = 3 m q3 = 5.00  10−9 C
3
r13 = 5 m  = tan−1 = 36.9
4

q1
Start with FBD and Axis always

+y F13
F23  F13y=F13sin()
+x q3 F13x=F13cos()
Using Coulomb’s Law between each pair of charges:

𝑞1 𝑞3 −8 𝑁 (𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑞 )
𝐹13 = 𝑘 = 1.07910 1
𝑟132

𝑞2 𝑞3
𝐹23 = 𝑘 2
= 5.61710−9 𝑁 (𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑞2 )
𝑟23
But Forces are vectors, so must find components before adding!

𝐹𝑦 = 𝐹23,𝑦 + 𝐹13,𝑦 = 0 + 𝐹13,𝑦 = 𝐹13 sin(36.9∘ ) = 6.47610−9 𝑁

𝐹𝑥 = 𝐹23,𝑥 + 𝐹13,𝑥 = −𝐹23 + 𝐹13cos(36.9∘ ) = 3.01110−9 𝑁

Direction can be found from trigonometry! F

 Fy
𝐹𝑦 6.47610−9
𝑁
tan 𝜙 = = ⇒  = tan −1(2.15) = 65.1
𝐹𝑥 3.01110−9 𝑁 Fx
𝐹_𝑛𝑒𝑡 = 𝐹𝑥2 + 𝐹𝑦2 = 7.1410−9 𝑁 (total Force magnitude using Pythagorean theorem)
Direction: at an angle of 65.1 above the positive x axis.
 Why should you care about all this?
• Almost all macroscopic phenomena we experience is due to electromagnetism, apart from
gravity. For instance, the normal force you’re experiencing from the chair is due to electric
repulsion between atoms in your body and the chair!

• There are 4 fundamental forces in nature: gravity, EM, strong nuclear force (holds nucleus
together), weak nuclear force (causes nuclear decay).
• If you ever experienced any force, apart from gravity, it was always EM force. Thus, if you want
answers about nature, you better know this subject!