ELECTRICITY

A. Static Electricity
1. Static electricity is the net imbalance of charged particles on an object
2. Usually caused by friction
3. The word

means...amber (when ancient Greeks rubbed amber rocks with wool, the

rocks picked up the ability to attract other objects)

4. Coulombs Law:
a. Positive charge: an object that has lost electrons (more protons than electrons)
b. Negative charge: an object that has gained electrons
c. Opposite charges attract, like charges repel
5. Electric field:
a. An area surrounding an electron that exerts a force on anything nearby with an electrical
charge
b. The area of influence of a charged object
6. Conductors and insulators
a. A conductor is a material that allows electrons to move easily thru it
i. Usually a metal
ii. Also graphite
b. An insulator is a material that doesnt allow electrons to move easily through
i. Ex: plastic/glass/wood/rubber/paper
7. Electroscope
a. Device containing 2 suspended gold leaves in a jar that move apart when charged
8. Lightning
a. Warm humid air rises
b. The air gets cooler as altitude increases; the water vapor begins to condense into water
droplets
c. The updrafts cause friction with the water droplets, larger droplets become negatively
charged and smaller droplets become positively charged
d. The smaller droplets get pushed to the top of the cloud (now called a cumulonimbus
cloud) the top becomes positively charged
e. Bottom becomes negatively charged; induces positive charge on the ground below
f. Discharge! When the voltage gets great enough, electrons flow from negative to positive
9. Thunder
a. Where there is thunder, there must have been lightning
b. Thunder is a sound wave produced by a discharge heating the air rapidly. The extremely
hot air expands rapidly creating a compression wave, causing a rarefaction
10. Heat lightning
a. Heat Lightning is lightning that is too far away to hear the thunder. The light is
reflected off of the clouds.
b. It takes sound about 5 sec. to travel one mile
B. Current Electricity
1. Charges in motion
a. The flow of electrons
2. Potential difference: the difference in charge between 2 areas

a. Pump analogy: like the difference in water pressure - the greater the difference, the
greater the pressure
b. Measured in volts
c. The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electromotive force, commonly called voltage
3. Coulomb
a. A coulomb is a unit to measure electrical charge
4. Circuit
a. A circuit is a pathway for electrons to travel
5. Current
a. Current: the flow of electrons thru a wire or any conductor
i. Measured in amperes (amps)
ii. One ampere is a flow of one coulomb per second