Electrostatics

Question 1

what is electric charge measured in?

Answer 1

Coulombs

Question 2

elementary charge

Answer 2

the elementary unit of electric charge: e=1.6*10^-19 C

Question 3

charged

Answer 3

imbalance in electrons and protons

Question 4

ionized

Answer 4

if a neutral has electrons removed or added, resulting in an electrically charged atom (ion)

Question 5

cation

Answer 5

positively charged ion

Question 6

anion

Answer 6

negatively charged ion

Question 7

quantized

Answer 7

charge on an object can only be a whole number

Question 8

electric field

Answer 8

altered distribution of charge in the space around a source charge

Question 9

source charge

Answer 9

the charge creating the electric field

Question 10

vector field

Answer 10

at each point in space surrounding the source charge, there is an specific vector associated at that point

Question 11

length of vector in electric field indicates:

Answer 11

magnitude or strength of the field at that point

Question 12

the direction of vector in electric field indicates:

Answer 12

the direction of the resulting electric force that a positive test charge would feel if it were placed at that point

Question 13

electric dipole

Answer 13

a pair of equal but opposite charges

Question 14

conductor

Answer 14

a material that contains charges that are free to roam throughout the material

Question 15

conduction electrons

Answer 15

free charges that can move in a conductor

Question 16

insulator (dielectric)

Answer 16

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

Question 17

electric potential

Answer 17

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

Question 18

volt

Answer 18

J/C, the unit for electric potential

Question 19

voltage

Answer 19

change in potential

Question 20

what kind of force is electric force?

Answer 20

conservative: all that matters is where the charge began and where it ended, the specific path it takes doesn’t matter

Question 21

electron volt (eV0

Answer 21

the kinetic energy experienced by an electron moving through a potential difference of 1 V (1.6*10^-18 J=1eV)