Electrostatics Flashcards
what is electric charge measured in?
Coulombs
elementary charge
the elementary unit of electric charge: e=1.6*10^-19 C
charged
imbalance in electrons and protons
ionized
if a neutral has electrons removed or added, resulting in an electrically charged atom (ion)
cation
positively charged ion
anion
negatively charged ion
quantized
charge on an object can only be a whole number
electric field
altered distribution of charge in the space around a source charge
source charge
the charge creating the electric field
vector field
at each point in space surrounding the source charge, there is an specific vector associated at that point
length of vector in electric field indicates:
magnitude or strength of the field at that point
the direction of vector in electric field indicates:
the direction of the resulting electric force that a positive test charge would feel if it were placed at that point
electric dipole
a pair of equal but opposite charges
conductor
a material that contains charges that are free to roam throughout the material
conduction electrons
free charges that can move in a conductor
insulator (dielectric)
a material that doesn’t have free charges, electrons are tightly bound to their atoms and thus are not free to roam throughout the material
electric potential
a scalar field that indicates the electric potential energy at any point from a source charge, positive source charge=positive potential, negative source charge=negative potential
volt
J/C, the unit for electric potential
voltage
change in potential
what kind of force is electric force?
conservative: all that matters is where the charge began and where it ended, the specific path it takes doesn’t matter
electron volt (eV0
the kinetic energy experienced by an electron moving through a potential difference of 1 V (1.6*10^-18 J=1eV)
