Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Different Electrical Unit, Coulombs Law

November 8, 2015
Md. Enamul Hoque
mjonyh@gmail.com
Department of Physics
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology
Bangladesh

Md. Enamul Hoque mjonyh@gmail.com | Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Different Electrical Units

Quantity
Electric Current
Voltage
Electromotive force
Potential difference
Resistance
Electric power
Capacitance
Inductance
Conductance
Electric charge
Energy

Electrical Units
Quantity
Unit
Symbols
I
Ampere
V or E
Volt
E
Volt

Volt
R
Ohm
P
Watt
C
Farad
L
Henry
G
Siemens
Q
Coulomb
E
Joule

Unit
Symbols
A
V
V
V

W
F
H
S
C
J

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Units prefix

Prefix
pico
nano
micro
milli
kilo
mega
giga

Prefix
Symbol
p
n

m
k
M
G

Prefix factor

Example

1012
109
106
103
103
106
109

1pF = 1012 F
1nF = 109 F
1A = 106 A
1mA = 103 A
1k = 1000
1MHz = 106 Hz
1GHz = 109 Hz

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Vector Calculus

Pattern 1: A (Gradient of A),

Pattern 2: .A (Divergence of A ) and

Pattern 3: A (Curl of A)

Md. Enamul Hoque mjonyh@gmail.com | Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Coulombs law

Coulomb has experimentally showed that the electric force between

two stationary charged particles
I

is inversely proportional to the square of the separations r

between the particles and directed along the line joining them;

is proportional to the product of the charges q1 and q2 on the two

particles;
is attractive if the charges are of opposite sign and repulsive if
the charges have same sign.

Md. Enamul Hoque mjonyh@gmail.com | Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Coulombs law

Mathematically,
Fe

q1 q2
r2

So,
Fe = ke

q1 q2
r2

(1)

(2)

where ke = 9 109 Nm2 /C 2 (in SI) is the Coulomb constant. The

value of ke is depend on Unit.

Example
The electron and proton of a hydrogen atom are separated by a
distance of approximately 2.3 1011 m. Find the magnitudes of the
electric force and the gravitational force between the two particles.
[me = 9.1 1031 kg and mp = 1.7 1027 kg]
Ans: Fe = 8.2 108 N and Fg = 3.6 1047 N.

Md. Enamul Hoque mjonyh@gmail.com | Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Coulombs law

Brainstorm
Is there any difference between Coulombs law and Newtons law of
gravitation?

Md. Enamul Hoque mjonyh@gmail.com | Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Coulombs law

In vector form,

q1 q2
r
(3)
r2
where r is a unit vector directed from q1 to q2 . What about F21 ? Is this
figure correct!
F12 = ke

Md. Enamul Hoque mjonyh@gmail.com | Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Coulombs Law

Brainstorm
Object A has a charge of +2C and object B has a charge of +6C.
Which statement is true?
1. FAB = 3FBA
2. FAB = FBA
3. 3FAB = FBA

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Coulombs law

Resultant Force:
When more than two charged particles are present, the resultant
force on any one of them equals the vector sum of the force exerted
by the other individual charged particles.
F1 = F21 + F31 + F41

(4)

Find Resultant Force

Consider three point charges located at the corners of a right triangle
as in figure (?) where q1 = q3 = 5.0C, q2 = 2.0C and a = 0.10m.
Find the resultant force exerted on q3 .

Md. Enamul Hoque mjonyh@gmail.com | Electricity, Magnetism and Modern Physics

Problems

1. (a) Two protons in a molecule are separated by a distance of

3.80 1010 m. Find the electric force exerted by one proton on
the other. (b) How does the magnitude of this force compare with
the magnitude of the gravitational force between the two
protons? (c) What must be the charge-to-mass ratio of a particle
if the magnitude of the gravitational force between two of these
particles equals the magnitude of the electric force between
them?
2. Richard Feynman once said that if two persons stood at arms
length from each other and each person had 1% more electrons
than protons, the force of repulsion between them would be
enough to lift a "weight" equal to that of the entire Earth. Carry
out an order-of-magnitude calculation to substantiate this
assertion.

10

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