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Physics 2102: Electric Charge

Physics 2102 is a lecture on electric charge taught by Professor Jonathan Dowling. The lecture details include the course website, textbook, exams, homework assignments, and grading scale. The lecture then covers the fundamentals of electric charge including Coulomb's law, electric charges in solids, charging objects, conservation and quantization of charge, and the concept of superposition for calculating forces between multiple charges.

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Alan Meysamian
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80 views21 pages

Physics 2102: Electric Charge

Physics 2102 is a lecture on electric charge taught by Professor Jonathan Dowling. The lecture details include the course website, textbook, exams, homework assignments, and grading scale. The lecture then covers the fundamentals of electric charge including Coulomb's law, electric charges in solids, charging objects, conservation and quantization of charge, and the concept of superposition for calculating forces between multiple charges.

Uploaded by

Alan Meysamian
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Physics 2102

Jonathan Dowling

Physics 2102
Lecture 1
Electric Charge

Charles-Augustin
de Coulomb
(1736-1806)
Version: 1/17/07
Who Am I?
Prof. Jonathan P. Dowling
1994–98: Research Physicist, US Army Aviation & Missile Command
1998–2004: Principal Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
2004–Present: Director, Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics, LSU

Office hours: Nicholson Annex 453, MWF 2:30-3:30pm


(or by appointment)
Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics
Phone: 578-0887 Quantum Sciences & Technologies Group

Email: [email protected]

My Research:
Quantum Optics
Quantum Computing
Photonic Crystals
Course Details
• Class Website:
http://www.phys.lsu.edu/classes/spring2007/phys2102/
Syllabus, schedule, grade policy, …

• Lectures will be posted in this sections’ website:


http://phys.lsu.edu/~jdowling/phys21024/

• Text:
Fundamentals of Physics, Halliday, Resnick, and Walker, 7th edition.
We will cover chapters 21-36 in this class.

• Exams:
Three midterms: 08 FEB, 08 MAR, 12 APR
Final Exam (cumulative): 10 MAY

• Quizzes:
Nearly every class.
Course details: Homework
Web-based system: Web Assign
To register:
• Go to http://www.webassign.net/student.html
• On the left frame, “student login”
• Username: lsuemail
• Institution: lsu
• Password: your SSN
• Choose “credit card registration” ($8.50)

There will be one assignment per week due 2:00AM Tuesdays.

The first assignment will be posted later today.


Course details: Grading
100

200 1st exam


2nd exam
3rd exam
100
Homework
Quizzes
Final Exam
50
100
50

A B C D F
>88% 88–76% 76–60% 60–50% <50%
What are we going to learn?
A road map
• Electric charge
 Electric force on other electric charges
 Electric field, and electric potential
• Moving electric charges : current
• Electronic circuit components: batteries, resistors, capacitors
• Electric currents  Magnetic field
 Magnetic force on moving charges
• Time-varying magnetic field  Electric Field
• More circuit components: inductors, AC circuits.
• Maxwell’s equations  Electromagnetic waves  light waves
• Geometrical Optics (light rays).
• Physical optics (light waves): interference, diffraction.
Let’s get started!
Electric charges
• Two types of charges: positive/negative
• Like charges repel
• Opposite charges attract

Atomic structure :
• negative electron cloud
• nucleus of positive protons, uncharged neutrons

[[Why doesn’t the nucleus fly apart??


Why doesn’t the atom collapse??]]
Charles-Augustin
de Coulomb
(1736-1806)
Force between pairs of point
charges: Coulomb’s law
 q1 F12 F21 q2

or F12  q1 q2 F21

or F12  q1 q2 F21

Coulomb’s law -- the force between point charges:


• Lies along the line connecting the charges.
• Is proportional to the magnitude of each charge.
• Is inversely proportional to the distance squared.
• Note that Newton’s third law says |F12| = |F21|!!
Coulomb’s law
 q1 F12 F21 q2

r12
For charges in a
k | q1 | | q2 |
| F12 |
VACUUM
2
r12 k= 8.99  109 N m
C2
2

Often, we write k as:


2
12 C
k 1 with  0  8.85 10
4 0 Nm 2
Electric charges in solids
• In macroscopic solids, nuclei
often arrange themselves into
a stiff regular pattern called a
“lattice”.

• Electrons move around this


lattice. Depending on how
they move the solid can be
classified by its “electrical
properties” as an insulator or a
conductor.
Charges in solids
• In a conductor, electrons move around freely, forming a
“sea” of electrons. This is why metals conduct electricity.
• Charges can be “induced” (moved around) in conductors.

Blue background = mobile electrons

Red circles = static positive charge (nuclei)

+ -

+ -
Insulating solids
• In an insulator, each electron cloud is tightly bound to the
protons in a nucleus. Wood, glass, rubber.
• Note that the electrons are not free to move throughout the
lattice, but the electron cloud can “distort” locally.

+ -
How to charge an object
• An object can be given some “excess” charge: giving
electrons to it (we give it negative charge) or
taking electrons away (we “give” it positive charge).

• How do we do charge an object? Usually, moving charges


from one surface to another by adhesion (helped by friction),
or by contact with other charged objects.

• If a conductor, the whole electron sea redistributes itself.

• If an insulator, the electrons stay where they are put.


Electroscope

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/estatics/esn.html
Van der Graaf generator

http://science.howstuffworks.com/vdg2.htm
http://www.amasci.com/emotor/vdg.html
Conservation of Charge
Total amount of charge in an isolated system is fixed (“conserved”)

Example: 2 identical metal


spheres have charges
+1C and –2C.
+1C 2C
You connect these together
with a metal wire; what is the ? ?
final charge distribution?
Quantization of Charge
• Charge is always found in INTEGER multiples
of the charge on an electron/proton ([[why?]])
• Unit of charge: Coulomb (C) in SI units
• Electron charge = –e = 1.6 x 10-19 Coulombs
• Proton charge = +e = +1.6 x 10-19 Coulombs
• One cannot ISOLATE FRACTIONAL CHARGE
(e.g. 0.8 x 10-19 C, +1.9 x 10-19 C, etc.) [[but
what about quarks…?]]
• Unit of current: Ampere = Coulomb/second
Superposition
• Question: How do we figure out the force
on a point charge due to many other point
charges?
• Answer: consider one pair at a time,
calculate the force (a vector!) in each case
using Coulomb’s Law and finally add all the
vectors! (“superposition”)
• Useful to look out for SYMMETRY to
simplify calculations!
Example q1= q2= q3= 20 mC

• Three equal charges form q1


an equilateral triangle of d
side 1.5 m as shown d
• Compute the force on q1 q3
• What is the force on the
d
other charges? q2

y
o F12
60
1
a x
F13
d
Solution: Set up a coordinate system, d
3
compute vector sum of F12 and F13
d
2
Another example with
symmetry

Charge +q
+q placed at center

What is the force on central particle?


Summary
• Electric charges come with two signs: positive and negative.

• Like charges repel, opposite charges attract, with a magnitude


calculated from Coulomb’s law: F=kq1q2/r2

• Atoms have a positive nucleus and a negative “cloud”.

• Electron clouds can combine and flow freely in conductors;


are stuck to the nucleus in insulators.

•We can charge objects by transferring charge, or by induction.

• Electrical charge is conserved, and quantized.

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