Reference Tools and Resources
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Chapter 19: Electric Charges, Forces, and Fields Reference Tools and Resources |
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Reference Tools & Resources
I. Key Terms and Phrases
electric charge: a property of particles that is important to the structure of atoms and molecules and acts as the source of a fundamental force of nature.
protons: positively charged particles found in atomic nuclei that possess the smallest measurable electric charge.
electrons: negatively charged particles found in atoms that possess the small measurable electric charge.
conductors: materials, such as metals, in which electrons easily flow.
insulators: materials, such as rubber, in which electrons do not easily flow.
semiconductors: materials with electrical properties that are intermediate between conductors and insulators.
Coulomb's law: the force between two point charges.
superposition: the principle that electrical forces and fields that result from multiple sources are obtained by vector addition of the results from the individual sources.
charge density: a measure of the compactness of electric charge especially useful with continuous charge distributions.
electric field: the electric force per unit of positive charge in space.
electric field lines: a pictoral representation of an electric field.
electrostatic shielding: the phenomenon that the electric field inside of a conductor is zero, in static equilibrium, even when the conductor is exposed to an external electric field.
electric flux: a measure of the extent to which an electric field flows through an area.
Gauss' law: the law that relates the electric flux through a closed surface to the net charge it encloses.
permittivity of free space: the fundamental constant of electrostatics.
gaussian surface: an imaginary surface used for applying Gauss' law.
II. Important Equations
| Name/Topic | Equation | Explanation |
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The force between two point charges. | |
| The electric field is the force per unit of positive charge. | ||
| Electric flux measures the amount of electric field flowing through an area. | ||
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Gauss' law relates electric charge to the flux generated by its electric field. |
III. Know Your Units
| Quantity | Dimension | SI Unit |
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Reference Tools and Resources by David Reid, Eastern Michigan University. ©2002 by Prentice Hall, Inc.
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