Conceptual Physics

11th Edition

Chapter 22:
ELECTROSTATICS

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 This lecture will help you understand:
• Electrical Forces and Charges
• Conservation of Charge
• Coulomb’s Law
• Conductors and Insulators
• Superconductors
• Charging
• Charge Polarization
• Electric Field
• Electric Potential
• Electric Energy Storage

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 Central rule of electricity
• Opposite charges attract one another;
like charges repel.

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 Protons
• Positive electric charges
• Repel positives, but attract negatives
Electrons
• Negative electric charges
• Repel negatives, but attract
positives

Neutrons
• Neutral electric charge

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 Electric Force and Charges
Fundamental facts about atoms (continued)
3. Protons and neutrons compose the nucleus.
Protons are about 1800 times more massive
than electrons, but each one carries an amount
of positive charge equal to the negative charge
of electrons. Neutrons have slightly more mass
than protons and have no net charge.
4. Atoms usually have as many electrons as
protons, so the atom has zero net charge.

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 Electric Force and Charges

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 Electric Force and Charges
Electrons in an atom
Examples:
• When rubbing a comb through your hair, electrons
transfer from your hair to the comb. Your hair has a
deficiency of electrons (positively charged).
• When rubbing a glass rod with silk, electrons transfer
from the rod onto the silk and the rod becomes
positively charged.

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 Electric Force and Charges
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR

When you brush your hair and scrape electrons from your
hair, the charge of your hair is

A. positive.
B. negative.
C. Both A and B.
D. Neither A nor B.

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 Electric Force and Charges
CHECK YOUR ANSWER

When you brush your hair and scrape electrons from your
hair, the charge of your hair is

A. positive.
B. negative.
C. Both A and B.
D. Neither A nor B.

Comment:
And if electrons were scraped off the brush onto your hair, your hair
would have a negative charge.

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 q1q2
F=k 2
d


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 Coulomb’s Law
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR

A. half as strong.
B. one-quarter as strong.
C. twice as strong.
D. 4 times as strong.

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 Coulomb’s Law
CHECK YOUR ANSWER

According to Coulomb’s law, a pair of particles that are

placed twice as far apart will experience forces that are

A. half as strong.
B. one-quarter as strong.
C. twice as strong.
D. 4 times as strong.

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 Coulomb’s Law

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 Coulomb’s Law
Charge polarization

• Atom or molecule in which the charges are aligned with a slight

excess of positive charge on one side and slight excess of
negative charge on the other

• Example: Rub an inflated balloon on

your hair and place the
balloon on the wall. The
balloon sticks to the wall
due to charge polarization in
the atoms or molecules of
the wall.

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 Conductors and Insulators
• Conductor: Materials in which one or more of the
electrons in the outer shell of its atoms are not
anchored to the nuclei of particular atoms but are
free to wander in the material
– Example: Metals such as copper and aluminum

• Insulators: Materials in which electrons are tightly

bound and belong to particular atoms and are not
free to wander about among other atoms in the
material, making them flow
– Example: Rubber, glass

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 Conductors and Insulators
• Semiconductors: A material that can be made to
behave sometimes as an insulator and sometimes
as a conductor.
– Fall in the middle range of electrical resistivity between
insulators and conductors.
– They are insulators when they are in their pure state.
– They are conductors when they have impurities.
• Semiconductors conduct when light shines on it.
– If a charged selenium plate is exposed to a pattern of
light, the charge will leak away only from the areas
exposed to light.

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 Superconductors
• Superconductors: Materials acquire zero
resistance (infinite conductivity) to the flow
of charge.
– Once electric current is established in a
superconductor, the electrons flow indefinitely.
– With no electrical resistance, current passes
through a superconductor without losing
energy.
– No heat loss occurs when charges flow.

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 Charging
• Charging by friction and contact.
Example:
Stroking cats fur, combing your hair, rubbing
your shoes on a carpet

• Electrons transfer from one material to

another by simply touching. For example,
– when a negatively charged rod is placed in
contact with a neutral object, some electrons will
move to the neutral object.

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 Charging
• Charging by induction
– If you bring a charged object near a conducting
surface, electrons are made to move in the
surface material, even without physical contact.

– Example: The negative

charge at the bottom of
the cloud induces a
positive charge on the
buildings below.

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 Charging
Induction: Consider two insulated metal spheres A and B.
a. They touch each other, so in effect they form a single uncharged
conductor.
b. When a negatively charged rod is brought near A, electrons in the
metal, being free to move, are repelled as far as possible until their
mutual repulsion is big enough to balance the influence of the rod.
The charge is redistributed.
c. If A and B are separated while the rod is still present, each will be
equal and oppositely charged.

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 Charge Polarization
• One side of the atom or molecule is induced into becoming
more negative (or positive) than the opposite side. The
atom or molecule is said to be electrically polarized.
• An electron buzzing around the atomic nucleus produces an
electron cloud.
a. The center of the negative cloud
normally coincides with the center
of the positive nucleus in an atom.
b. When an external negative charge
is brought nearby to the right, the
electron cloud is distorted so that
the centers of negative and
positive charge no longer
coincide. The atom is now
electrically polarized
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 Charge Polarization
• If the charged rod is negative,
then the positive part of the atom
or molecule is tugged in a
direction toward the rod, and the
negative side of the atom or
molecule is pushed in a direction
away from the rod.
• The positive and negative parts of
the atoms and molecules become
aligned. They are electrically
polarized.

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 Charge Polarization
• When a charged comb is
brought nearby, molecules in
the paper are polarized.

• The sign of charge closest to

the comb is opposite to the
comb’s charge.

• Charges of the same sign are

slightly more distant.
Closeness wins, and the bits
of paper experience a net
attraction.

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 Charge Polarization
• Rub an inflated balloon on your
hair, and it becomes charged.

• Place the balloon against the

wall, and it sticks.

• This is because the charge on

the balloon induces an opposite
surface charge on the wall.

• Again, closeness wins, for the

charge on the balloon is slightly
closer to the opposite induced
charge than to the charge of
same sign
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 Charge Polarization
• Many molecules—H2O, for
example—are electrically
polarized in their normal states.

• The distribution of electric

charge is not perfectly even.

• There is a little more negative

charge on one side of the
molecule than the other.

• Such molecules are said to be

electric dipoles.

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 Electric Field
Electric field
• Space surrounding an electric charge (an
energetic aura)
• Describes electric force
• Around a charged particle obeys inverse-square
law
• Force per unit charge

E=F/q

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 Electric Field
Electric field direction
• Same direction as the force on a positive charge
• Opposite direction to the force on an electron

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 Electric Field

Both Lori and the

spherical dome of the
Van de Graaff generator
are electrically charged.

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 Electric Potential
Electric potential energy
• Energy possessed by a charged particle due to
its location in an electric field. Work is required
to push a charged particle against the electric
field of a charged body.

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 Electric Potential

(a) The spring has

more elastic PE when
compressed. (b) The
small charge similarly
has more PE when
pushed closer to the
charged sphere. In
both cases, the
increased PE is the
result of work input.

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 Electric Potential
Electric potential (voltage)
• Energy per charge possessed by a charged
particle due to its location
• May be called voltage—potential energy per
charge
• In equation form:

Electric potential  electric potential energy

amount of charge

V=PE/q

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 Electric Potential
Electric potential (voltage) (continued)
• Unit of measurement: volt, 1 volt  1 joule
1 coulomb
Example:
• Twice the charge in same location has twice the
electric potential energy but the same electric potential.

• 3 times the charge in same location has 3 times the

electric potential energy but the same electric potential
(2 E/2 q = 3 E/3 q = V)
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 Electric Potential
CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR

Electric potential energy is measured in joules. Electric

potential, on the other hand (electric potential energy per
charge), is measured

A. in volts.
B. in watts.
C. in amperes.
D. also in joules.

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 Electric Potential
CHECK YOUR ANSWER

Electric potential energy is measured in joules. Electric

potential, on the other hand (electric potential energy per
charge), is measured

A. in volts.
B. in watts.
C. in amperes.
D. also in joules.

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 Electric Potential
Electric potential (voltage) (continued)
• High voltage can occur at low electric potential
energy for a small amount of charge.
• High voltage at high electric potential energy
occurs for lots of charge.

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 Electric Energy Storage
• Electrical energy can be stored
in a common device called a
capacitor.
• The simplest capacitor is a pair
of conducting plates separated
by a small distance, but not
touching each other.
• When the plates are connected
to a charging device, such as the
battery, electrons are transferred
from one plate to the other.

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 capacitor

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