Electrostatics is the branch of physics that deals with the phenomena and properties of stationary or slow-moving (without acceleration)

electric charges. Since classical antiquity, it was known that some materials such as amber attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The Greek word for amber, electron, was the source of the word 'electricity'. Electrostatic phenomena arise from the forces that electric charges exert on each other. Such forces are described by Coulomb's law. Even though electrostatically induced forces seem to be rather weak, the electrostatic force between e.g. an electron and a proton, that together make up a hydrogen atom, is about 40 orders of magnitude stronger than the gravitational force acting between them. Electrostatic phenomena include many examples as simple as the attraction of the plastic wrap to your hand after you remove it from a package, to the apparently spontaneous explosion of grain silos, to damage of electronic components during manufacturing, to the operation of photocopiers. Electrostatics involves the buildup of charge on the surface of objects due to contact with other surfaces. Although charge exchange happens whenever any two surfaces contact and separate, the effects of charge exchange are usually only noticed when at least one of the surfaces has a high resistance to electrical flow. This is because the charges that transfer to or from the highly resistive surface are more or less trapped there for a long enough time for their effects to be observed. These charges then remain on the object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge: e.g., the familiar phenomenon of a static 'shock' is caused by the neutralization of charge built up in the body from contact with nonconductive surfaces. There are two types of charges: positive and negative. Like charges repel and opposite charges attract. There exist in nature two types of charges: positive and negative. The force between them is such that like charges repel and opposite charges attract. For example, two positive charges brought near each other will be pushed away from each other. On the other hand, one positive charge and one negative charge brought near each other will be pulled towards each other. It is this principle on which all

electrostatics is based. In general, a material is either a conductor or an insulator. A conductor allows electric charge to travel through it easily; an insulator does not. Each type of material has a different arrangement of atoms, electrons, and protons. The particular arrangement of a material's atoms can be very advantageous for electric charge to travel through it. Metals, for instance, are very good conductors. Charges can flow through a metal with very little resistance. The particular arrangement of a material's atoms can by disadvantageous, however. Rubber, for instance, has its atoms arranged such that it is very difficult for electric charge to flow through it. Rubber is considered to be an insulator. A person's body acts as a conductor. Surprisingly, a person's body allows electric charge to travel through it easily. It is for this reason that one must be careful not to plug in the radio while in the bathtub: electric charges from the outlet can run through your body, electrocuting you. When certain types of materials are rubbed against other certain types, charge may be transferred from one to the other. Each object contains charge. For most objects, the number of negative charges equals the number of positive charges, giving a net charge of zero. These charges are free to move, however. When certain types of materials are rubbed against each other, the material's atoms are arranged such that some of the charges from one material will be transferred to the other material. This gives both objects a net charge. One object will be positively charged, the other will be negatively charged. For example, when a teflon rod is rubbed against silk, charge is transferred. When an uncharged object is placed near a charged object its charges rearrange themselves. Those charges attracted to the

charged object move towards the charged object and those charges repelled move away. This effect is known as polarization. As discussed before, most objects are uncharged. An uncharged object means that the total number of positive charges equals the total number of negative charges. The net charge on the object is zero. When an uncharged object is polarized as described above, its net charge remains zero. No additional charge is put on the object. What does happen, however, is the charges inside the object rearrange themselves. When a negatively charged object, for instance, is placed near an uncharged object, the negative charges move away from the charged object and the positive charges move towards the charged object. It is this effect that makes the uncharged object act as if it is charged. Charges on a conductor tend to gather at sharp points. For several complex reasons, the charges on a conductor will gather at sharp points. A metal cone, for instance, which has been charged will have a lot of charge at the point, and much less charge elsewhere. In physics, an electric field surrounds electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. The electric field depicts the force exerted on other electrically charged objects by the electrically charged particle the field is surrounding. The concept of an electric field was introduced by Michael Faraday. The electric field is a vector field with SI units of newtons per coulomb (N C1) or, equivalently, volts per metre (V m1). The SI base units of the electric field are kgms3A1. The strength or magnitude of the field at a given point is defined as the force that would be exerted on a positive test charge of 1 coulomb placed at that point; the direction of the field is given by the direction of that force. Electric fields contain electrical energy with energy density proportional to the square of the field amplitude. The electric field is to charge as gravitational acceleration is to mass and force density is to volume.

An electric field that changes with time, such as due to the motion of charged particles in the field, influences the local magnetic field. That is, the electric and magnetic fields are not completely separate phenomena; what one observer perceives as an electric field, another observer in a different frame of reference perceives as a mixture of electric and magnetic fields. For this reason, one speaks of "electromagnetism" or "electromagnetic fields". In quantum electrodynamics, disturbances in the electromagnetic fields are called photons, and the energy of photons is quantized. Capacitors in Series and in Parallel Capacitors are one of the standard components in electronic circuits. Moreover, complicated combinations of capacitors often occur in practical circuits. It is, therefore, useful to have a set of rules for finding the equivalent capacitance of some general arrangement of capacitors. It turns out that we can always find the equivalent capacitance by repeated application of two simple rules. These rules related to capacitors connected in series and in parallel.

the potential difference across the two capacitors is the same, and is equal to the potential difference between the input and output wires. The

total charge , however, stored in the two capacitors is divided between the capacitors, since it must distribute itself such that the voltage across the two is the same. Since the capacitors may have

different capacitances,

and

, the charges

and

may also be different. The equivalent

Figure 16: Two capacitors connected in series. Consider two capacitors connected in series: i.e., in a line such that the positive plate of one is attached to the negative plate of the other--see Fig. 16. In fact, let us suppose that the positive plate of capacitor 1 is connected to the ``input'' wire, the negative plate of capacitor 1 is connected to the positive plate of capacitor 2, and the negative plate of capacitor 2 is connected to the ``output'' wire. What is the equivalent capacitance between the input and output wires? In this case, it is important

capacitance

of the pair of capacitors is simply to realize that the charge stored in the two capacitors is the same. This is most easily seen by considering the ``internal'' plates: i.e., the negative plate of capacitor 1, and the positive plate of capacitor 2. These plates are physically disconnected from the rest of the circuit, so the total charge on them must remain constant. Assuming, as seems reasonable, that these plates carry zero charge when zero potential difference is applied across the two capacitors, it follows that in the presence of a non-zero potential difference the

the ratio , where total stored charge. It follows that

is the

(113)

giving (114)

charge on the positive plate of capacitor 2 must be balanced by an equal and opposite charge Here, we have made use of the fact that the voltage is common to all three capacitors. Thus, the rule is: The equivalent capacitance of two capacitors connected in parallel is the sum of the individual capacitances. For capacitors connected in parallel, Eq. (114) on the negative plate of capacitor 1. Since the

Figure 15: Two capacitors connected in parallel. Consider two capacitors connected in parallel: i.e., with the positively charged plates connected to a common ``input'' wire, and the negatively charged plates attached to a common ``output'' wire--see Fig. 15. What is the equivalent capacitance between the input and output wires? In this case,

negative plate of capacitor 1 carries a charge

the positive plate must carry a charge . Likewise, since the positive plate of capacitor 2

generalizes to

For carries a charge , the negative plate must

capacitors connected in series, Eq. (116)

carry a charge

. The net result is that both

generalizes to In classical electromagnetism, the electric potential (a scalar quantity denoted by , E or V and also called the electric field potential or the electrostatic potential) at a point is equal to the electric potential energy (measured in joules) of a charged particle at that location divided by the charge (measured in coulombs) of the particle. The electric potential is independent of the test particle's charge - it is determined by the electric field alone. The electric potential can be calculated at a point in either a static (time-invariant) electric field or in a dynamic (varying with time) electric field at a specific time, and has the units of joules per coulomb, or volts. There is also a generalized electric scalar potential that is used in electrodynamics when time-varying electromagnetic fields are present. This generalized electric potential cannot be simply interpreted as the ratio of potential energy to charge, however. Electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium.[1] This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire. It can also be carried by ions in an electrolyte, or by both ions and electrons in a plasma.[2] The SI unit for measuring the rate of flow of electric charge is the ampere, which is charge flowing through some surface at the rate of one coulomb per second. Electric current is measured using an ammeter.[1] Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance,[1] one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship:[2]

where I is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the potential difference measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor in units of ohms. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current.[3] The law was named after the German physicist Georg Ohm, who, in a treatise published in 1827, described measurements of applied voltage and current through simple electrical circuits containing various lengths of wire. He presented a slightly more complex equation than the one above (see History section below) to explain his experimental results. The above equation is the modern form of Ohm's law. In physics, the term Ohm's law is also used to refer to various generalizations of the law originally formulated by Ohm. The simplest example of this is:

capacitors possess the same stored charge

The potential drops, and , across the two capacitors are, in general, different. However, the sum of these drops equals the total potential drop applied across the input and output wires: i.e.,

. The equivalent capacitance of

the pair of capacitors is again Thus,

where J is the current density at a given location in a resistive material, E is the electric field at that location, and is a material dependent parameter called the conductivity. This reformulation of Ohm's law is due to Gustav Kirchhoff.[4] Components of an electrical circuit or electronic circuit can be connected in many different ways. The two simplest of these are called series and parallel and occur very frequently. Components connected in series are connected along a single path, so the same current flows through all of the components.[1][2] Components connected in parallel are connected so the same voltage is applied to each component.[3] A circuit composed solely of components connected in series is known as a series circuit; likewise, one connected completely in parallel is known as a parallel circuit. In a series circuit, the current through each of the components is the same, and the voltage across the components is the sum of the voltages across each component.[1] In a parallel circuit, the voltage across each of the components is the same, and the total current is the sum of the currents through each component.[3] As an example, consider a very simple circuit consisting of four light bulbs and one 6 V battery. If a wire joins the battery to one bulb, to the next bulb,

(115)

giving (116)

Here, we have made use of the fact that the charge

is common to all three capacitors. Hence, the rule is: The reciprocal of the equivalent capacitance of two capacitors connected in series is the sum of the reciprocals of the individual capacitances.

to the next bulb, to the next bulb, then back to the battery, in one continuous loop, the bulbs are said to be in series. If each bulb is wired to the battery in a separate loop, the bulbs are said to be in parallel. If the four light bulbs are connected in series, there is same current through all of them, and the voltage drop is 1.5 V across each bulb, which may not be sufficient to make them glow. If the light bulbs are connected in parallel, the currents through the light bulbs combine to form the current in the battery, while the voltage drop is 6.0 V across each bulb and they all glow. In a series circuit, every device must function for the circuit to be complete. One bulb burning out in a series circuit breaks the circuit. In parallel circuits, each light has its own circuit, so all but one light could be burned out, and the last one will still function. Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt. Circuits Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations. The term wattage is used colloquially to mean "electric power in watts." [edit] Direct current In direct current resistive circuits, electrical power is calculated using Joule's law:

Charge there are two kinds of charge, positive and negative like charges repel, unlike charges attract positive charge comes from having more protons than electrons; negative charge comes from having more electrons than protons charge is quantized, meaning that charge comes in integer multiples of the elementary charge e charge is conserved

Charge can be created and destroyed, but only in positive-negative pairs. Table of elementary particle masses and charges:

Electrostatic charging Forces between two electrically-charged objects can be extremely large. Most things are electrically neutral; they have equal amounts of positive and negative charge. If this wasnt the case, the world we live in would be a much stranger place. We also have a lot of control over how things get charged. This is because we can choose the appropriate material to use in a given situation. Metals are good conductors of electric charge, while plastics, wood, and rubber are not. Theyre called insulators. Charge does not flow nearly as easily through insulators as it does through conductors, which is why wires you plug into a wall socket are covered with a protective rubber coating. Charge flows along the wire, but not through the coating to you. Materials are divided into three categories, depending on how easily they will allow charge (i.e., electrons) to flow along them. These are: conductors - metals, for example semi-conductors - silicon is a good example insulators - rubber, wood, plastic for example

Probably everyone is familiar with the first three concepts, but what does it mean for charge to be quantized? Charge comes in multiples of an indivisible unit of charge, represented by the letter e. In other words, charge comes in multiples of the charge on the electron or the proton. These things have the same size charge, but the sign is different. A proton has a charge of +e, while an electron has a charge of -e. Electrons and protons are not the only things that carry charge. Other particles (positrons, for example) also carry charge in multiples of the electronic charge. Those are not going to be discussed, for the most part, in this course, however. Putting "charge is quantized" in terms of an equation, we say: q=ne q is the symbol used to represent charge, while n is a positive or negative integer, and e is the electronic charge, 1.60 x 10-19 Coulombs. The Law of Conservation of Charge The Law of conservation of charge states that the net charge of an isolated system remains constant. If a system starts out with an equal number of positive and negative charges, theres nothing we can do to create an excess of one kind of charge in that system unless we bring in charge from outside the system (or remove some charge from the system). Likewise, if something starts out with a certain net charge, say +100 e, it will always have +100 e unless it is allowed to interact with something external to it.

where P is the electric power, V the potential difference, and I the electric current. In the case of resistive (Ohmic, or linear) loads, Joule's law can be combined with Ohm's law (V = IR) to produce alternative expressions for the dissipated power:

where R is the electrical resistance. Electric charge and Coulomb's law 7-6-99

Most materials are either conductors or insulators. The difference between them is that in conductors, the outermost electrons in the atoms are so loosely bound to their atoms that theyre free to travel around. In insulators, on the other hand, the electrons are much more tightly bound to the atoms, and are not free to flow. Semi-conductors are a very useful intermediate class, not as conductive as metals but considerably more conductive than insulators. By adding certain impurities to semi-conductors in the appropriate concentrations the conductivity can be wellcontrolled.

There are three ways that objects can be given a net charge. These are: 1. Charging by friction - this is useful for charging insulators. If you rub one material with another (say, a plastic ruler with a piece of paper towel), electrons have a tendency to be transferred from one material to the other. For example, rubbing glass with silk or saran wrap generally leaves the glass with a positive charge; rubbing PVC rod with fur generally gives the rod a negative charge. 2. Charging by conduction - useful for charging metals and other conductors. If a charged object touches a conductor, some charge will be transferred between the object and the conductor, charging the conductor with the same sign as the charge on the object.

A practical application involving the transfer of charge is in how laser printers and photocopiers work. Coulomb's law The force exerted by one charge q on another charge Q is given by Coulomb's law:

Consider the forces exerted on the charge in the top right by the other three:

r is the distance between the charges. Remember that force is a vector, so when more than one charge exerts a force on another charge, the net force on that charge is the vector sum of the individual forces. Remember, too, that charges of the same sign exert repulsive forces on one another, while charges of opposite sign attract. An example Four charges are arranged in a square with sides of length 2.5 cm. The two charges in the top right and bottom left corners are +3.0 x 10-6 C. The charges in the other two corners are -3.0 x 10-6 C. What is the net force exerted on the charge in the top right corner by the other three charges? You have to be very careful to add these forces as vectors to get the net force. In this problem we can take advantage of the symmetry, and combine the forces from charges 2 and 4 into a force along the diagonal (opposite to the force from charge 3) of magnitude 183.1 N. When this is combined with the 64.7 N force in the opposite direction, the result is a net force of 118 N pointing along the diagonal of the square.

3. Charging by induction - also useful for

charging metals and other conductors. Again, a charged object is used, but this time it is only brought close to the conductor, and does not touch it. If the conductor is connected to ground (ground is basically anything neutral that can give up electrons to, or take electrons from, an object), electrons will either flow on to it or away from it. When the ground connection is removed , the conductor will have a charge opposite in sign to that of the charged object.

An example of induction using a negatively charged object and an initially-uncharged conductor (for example, a metal ball on a plastic handle). (1) bring the negatively-charged object close to, but not touching, the conductor. Electrons on the conductor will be repelled from the area nearest the charged object. (2) connect the conductor to ground. The electrons on the conductor want to get as far away from the negatively-charged object as possible, so some of them flow to ground. (3) remove the ground connection. This leaves the conductor with a deficit of electrons. (4) remove the charged object. The conductor is now positively charged.

To solve any problem like this, the simplest thing to do is to draw a good diagram showing the forces acting on the charge. You should also let your diagram handle your signs for you. Force is a vector, and any time you have a minus sign associated with a vector all it does is tell you about the direction of the vector. If you have the arrows giving you the direction on your diagram, you can just drop any signs that come out of the equation for Coulomb's law.

The symmetry here makes things a little easier. If it wasn't so symmetric, all you'd have to do is split the vectors up in to x and y components, add them to find the x and y components of the net force, and then calculate the magnitude and direction of the net force from the components. Example 16-4 in the textbook shows this process. The parallel between gravity and electrostatics An electric field describes how an electric charge affects the region around it. It's a powerful concept, because it allows you to determine ahead of time how a charge will be affected if it is brought into the region. Many people have trouble with the concept of a field, though, because it's something that's hard to get a real feel for. The fact is, though, that you're already familiar with a field. We've talked about

gravity, and we've even used a gravitational field; we just didn't call it a field. When talking about gravity, we got into the (probably bad) habit of calling g "the acceleration due to gravity". It's more accurate to call g the gravitational field produced by the Earth at the surface of the Earth. If you understand gravity you can understand electric forces and fields because the equations that govern both have the same form. The gravitational force between two masses (m and M) separated by a distance r is given by Newton's law of universal gravitation:

We can extend the parallel between gravity and electrostatics to energy, but we'll deal with that later. The bottom line is that if you can do projectile motion questions using gravity, you should be able to do them using electrostatics. In some cases, youll need to apply both; in other cases one force will be so much larger than the other that you can ignore one (generally if you can ignore one, it'll be the gravitational force). This law was first discovered by Charles Augustin de Coulomb. It explains that all magnetic objects have the tendency to repel or attract to one another. Like charges repel one another and unlike charges attract one another. The attraction or repulsion occurs in a straight line, there is a force between the charges and the bigger the charges the greater the force A capacitor (formerly known as condenser) is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric (insulator); for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated by a thin layer of insulating film. Capacitors are widely used as parts of electrical circuits in many common electrical devices. When there is a potential difference (voltage) across the conductors, a static electric field develops across the dielectric, causing positive charge to collect on one plate and negative charge on the other plate. Energy is stored in the electrostatic field. An ideal capacitor is characterized by a single constant value, capacitance, measured in farads. This is the ratio of the electric charge on each conductor to the potential difference between them. The capacitance is greatest when there is a narrow separation between large areas of conductor, hence capacitor conductors are often called "plates," referring to an early means of construction. In practice, the dielectric between the plates passes a small amount of leakage current and also has an electric field strength limit, resulting in a breakdown voltage, while the conductors and leads introduce an undesired inductance and resistance. Capacitors are widely used in electronic circuits for blocking direct current while allowing alternating current to pass, in filter networks, for smoothing the

output of power supplies, in the resonant circuits that tune radios to particular frequencies, in electric power transmission systems for stabilizing voltage and power flow, and for many other purposes.

A similar equation applies to the force between two charges (q and Q) separated by a distance r:

The force equations are similar, so the behavior of interacting masses is similar to that of interacting charges, and similar analysis methods can be used. The main difference is that gravitational forces are always attractive, while electrostatic forces can be attractive or repulsive. The charge (q or Q) plays the same role in the electrostatic case that the mass (m or M) plays in the case of the gravity. A good example of a question involving two interacting masses is a projectile motion problem, where there is one mass m, the projectile, interacting with a much larger mass M, the Earth. If we throw the projectile (at some random launch angle) off a 40-meter-high cliff, the force on the projectile is given by: F = mg This is the same equation as the more complicated equation above, with G, M, and the radius of the Earth, squared, incorporated into g, the gravitational field. So, you've seen a field before, in the form of g. Electric fields operate in a similar way. An equivalent electrostatics problem is to launch a charge q (again, at some random angle) into a uniform electric field E, as we did for m in the Earth's gravitational field g. The force on the charge is given by F = qE, the same way the force on the mass m is given by F = mg.