Origin of Electricity Autosavedno Vid

ELECTRICITY
The Origin of Electricity

• Thales, a Greek philosopher, found that when amber was rubbed with silk, it
became electrically charged and attracted other objects. Thales had discovered
static electricity.
• In 1600, William Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth I of England, found out
that many substances when rubbed against another substance have this ability of
amber. He called these substances electrics which comes from the Greek word
electron meaning amber.
• It was shown that every object acquires this ability to attract small pieces of
matter after it was rubbed against another. The object is said to be electrified or it
is said to have acquired a charge. Since the charge is at rest, it is often referred to
as static electricity.
• Electrostatics is the study of all phenomena associated with charged bodies at
rest.
Static Electricity
• Atoms are composed of even smaller, sub-atomic particles, namely,
electrons, protons and neutrons.
• Protons, which are located in the nucleus of the atom, have positive
charge.
• Electrons, which are located and revolving around the nucleus, have
an equal but negative charge as protons.
• Neutrons which are located inside the nucleus have no charge.
Usually, atoms have the same number of protons and electrons. Such
atoms are called neutral atoms. Otherwise, they are called ions.
• The electrons located outside the nucleus may be attracted or repelled
by other electrons of different atoms. Electrons can then move from
one atom to another. As a result, some atoms can get extra electrons
and acquire a net negative charge.
• Other atoms lose electrons and acquire a net positive charge. When
charges are separated like this, static electricity is produced as the
electrons regain their former state of balance.
• When objects are rubbed against each other, the electrons of their atoms have
the tendency to move from one atom to another. The manner by which
electrons move depends on the electron affinity of the atoms. Some objects
like metals share electrons easily while some like plastic and rubber don’t.
Objects that share electrons easily are conductors and those that do not share
electrons easily are insulators. Materials that may or may not share electrons
are called semiconductors. Semiconductors are often used in electronics.
• How do we know which among the objects being rubbed together gains
or loses electrons? By rubbing a variety of objects against each other and
taking their interaction with a known charge, the tested materials can be
ordered according to the affinity with electrons. Such an order is known as
triboelectric series.
Which will be positively charged and which will
be negatively charged when the materials in the
pair are rubbed against each other?
a. Paper and Silicone Rubber

b. Skin and PVC
c. Teflon and Wood
• Conductor is a material that allows charges to flow readily.
• Insulator is a material that resists the flow of charges.
• Semiconductor is an intermediate between a conductor and

an insulator
• If the bits of paper clung to the plastic ballpen case, it is right to say that either the
ballpen case or the paper was charged. Since you did not do anything but tear the
paper into pieces and, if initially, it was uncharged, then the pieces of paper
remained uncharged. The ballpen has greater electron affinity than your hair.
When it was rubbed against your hair, the ballpen case gained extra electrons and
became negatively charged. Thus, when placed near the bits of paper, the
negatively charged ballpen case attracted the uncharged paper.
Development of Electricity
• For our distant ancestors, perhaps one of the earliest manifestations of electrical
phenomenon is a lightning strike. When a lightning strikes a tree, the tree can explode in
flames.
• Even in ancient times, many different sources of power have been used such as the
controlled burning of wood, crops or animal wastes, and various types of coal.
• The Greeks and Romans utilized the power from the water in their windmills.
• The power of steam became available with the development of steam engines.
• As early as the 19th century, gas lamps became available but were later replaced by
incandescent bulbs.
• When generators were invented in the 20th century, the use of electricity to supply power
in multitude of applications has started.
• The development of electricity as a usable power really
happened only in the last twenty decades.
• Luigi Galvani discovered animal electricity after he
made the muscle of a frog twitch by touching the nerve
with various types of metals without a source of
electrostatic charge. He found out that the best reaction
of the frog’s muscle was obtained when two kinds of
metals were used.
• Contrary to the idea of “animal electricity”, Alessandro
Volta demonstrated the production of electricity with
inanimate materials alone. He believed that the
electricity produced by
• Galvani did not come from the frog’s muscle but from
the interaction of dissimilar metals. With this, he
invented the first battery called the voltaic pile, which
provided continuous electric current source.
• Over the years, our society has
become increasingly dependent
on electricity as a source of
power. Now, it is almost
unthinkable how electricity has
made life easier and more
comfortable. Almost all facets of
modern living depend on
electricity – lighting, heating or
cooling, food preparation,
transport, communication,
manufacturing of goods and
materials, entertainment, data
storage, medical applications,
household cleaning tasks, and
building and construction of
industries, to mention a few.
Coulomb’s Law of Charges
• Charged objects create an invisible electric force field around themselves. The strength of this field
depends on many things, including the amount of charge, the distance involved, and the shape of
the objects. This can become very complicated. We can simplify things by working with "point
sources" of charge. Point sources are charged objects that are much, much smaller than the
distance between them.
• Charles Coulomb first described electric field strengths in the 1780's. Using a device called the
torsion balance, he found that for point charges, the electrical force varies directly with the
product of the charges. In other words, the greater the charges, the stronger the field. And the field
varies inversely with the square of the distance between the charges. This means that the greater
the distance, the weaker the force becomes. This relationship can be written as a formula:
Where:
F = Force of attraction or repulsion
K = Proportionality constant (9 x 109 N.m2/C2 )
q = charges
d = distance between the charges
• A charge of 7C is placed 1.5 m away from the charge of 4C. What is
the magnitude of the electrostatic force between the charges? Is this
force attractive or repulsive?

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ELECTRICITY

The Origin of Electricity

a. Paper and Silicone Rubber

• Insulator is a material that resists the flow of charges.

• Semiconductor is an intermediate between a conductor and

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