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Coulumb's Law Key Concepts

Terms in this set (15)

What is electric charge?
A property of matter that allows it to interact with other electrically charged matter
unit of charge
coloumbs
electric charge causes what type of physical intereaction
electrostatic interactions, they interact by producing forces on one another
explain coulombs law
F is the scalar component of the force taken along the line between two interacting particles (to get the magnitude of the force between the two point masses, just take the magnitude of the charges
compare columbs law to newtons law of universal gravitation
-both are inverse square laws
-the force depends on the product of two masses or two charges
-both forces depend on a constant
-gravity is always an attractive force (negative)
what is e0 and k in columbs law
e0 is the permitivity of free space, k is the constant of proportionality = 8.99 x 10^9
how could you use coulombs law and the principle of superposition together?
use both to determine the net force on a charged particle by using vector addition to add up all of the individual forces acting on that charged particle
what is vector notation of coulombs law and explain it in words
the force on charge 1 by charge 2 equals the constant of proportionality times the two point charges and is inversely related to the square of the distance between the two charges, r hat is unitless and shows the direction of the vector from 2 to 1
what does rhat21 mean?
where r21 is |r1-r2|
2nd version of the coulumbs law in vector notation
F12= - kq1q2=/r12 squared (r hat 12)
-the negative sign tells you that like charges repel and that opposite charges attract
-when charges are of the same sign, the force on charge 1 by 2 is opposite the direction of the vector pointing from 1 to 2
-when charges are of opposite signs, the force on charge 1 by 2 is in in the same direction of the vector pointing from 1 to 2
how can macroscopic bodies aqquire charge
gaining or losing electrons
how can you statically charge an object
rub two dissimilar materials together, the one that is losely bould to its electrons will get a net poisitive charge while the other material will aqquire a negative charge
value of electric charge
1.6 x 10 ^ -19 C
electric charge is
conserved
electric insulators vs conductors
insulators have electrons tightly bound to their nucleus, conductors like metals have mobile electrons
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