Chapter – 1……..

ELECTRIC CHARGES AND FIELDS

When a glass rod is rubbed with silk , it develops a power to charge to attract light bodies such as small
piece of paper . The substance which acquires this behavior is said to be charged . This phenomenon is
called charging .

If the charge produced on body remains at rest then it is said to be Static electricity or charges at rest. The
branch of physics related to charges at rest is called Electrostatics .

ELECTRIC CHARGES:

Charge is something developed on body that makes it possible for them to exert electric forces and respond
to electric forces . It is a scalar quantity .

There are two kinds of charges (i) + ve charge (ii) – ve charge .When a body loses electron it is said to have
developed + ve charge while if it gains an electron it is said to have - ve charge .

Charge can be produced by three methods (i) Friction or rubbing (ii) Conduction (iii) Induction

A proton possess positive charge while an electron is said to have negative charge but both have same value
1.6 1019 C .

Unlike charges attract each other while like charges repel each other .

GOLD – LEAF ELECTROSCOPE:

It is an instrument which detects the electric charges by means of electric forces . It consists of two gold
leaves which are suspended by side from conducting rod which is held by an insulates support and placed in
an grounded enclosure such as glass jar. When a charge is applied to a plate to which the rod is connected ,
the leaves separate due to their mutual repulsion or attraction .

It can also detect the nature of charges ,

CONDUCTORS AND INSULATORS:

The substances which can be used to carry electric charges or conduct electric charges from one point to
another .They allow electricity to pass through them easily. Example : Iron , aluminum etc …

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The substances which cannot conduct electricity is called insulator. They are also called dielectrics . eg :
Glass , rubber …

CHARGING BY INDUCTION:

The process of charging a neutral body by bringing charged body nearby it without making contact between
two bodies is called charging by induction.

When charging by induction, the mass of body before and after charging remains same , and opposite nature
of charges are developed on the body .

In the diagram given below, a neutral body is being charged + ve by method of induction.

PROPERTIES OF CHARGES :

(i) Additive nature of charges : The total charge present on a system is the algebraic sum of all the charges
present in the system.
q  q1  q2  q3 .....  qn

(ii) Conservation of charge :The net charge of an isolated system always remains constant . That is charge
can neither be created nor destroyed.

  electron(e)  proton(e)

(iii) Quantization of charge : The charge on a body can be expresses as an integral multiple of basic unit of
charge i.e. charge on an electron . Therefore q  ne , here n = 1,2,3, ………… any positive integer.

(iv) Charges are invariant : Charges present on a body do not depends on speed of body.
But the mass of a body depends on speed of body and mass of body increases with speed according to
Einstein’s theory of relativity .

m0
m , Here m0  rest mass ,c  speed of light
v2
1 2
c

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHARGE AND MASS :

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 Charge Mass

(1) Electric charge can be positive, negative or zero. (1) Mass of a body is a positive quantity.

(2) Charge carried by a body does not depend upon (2) Mass of a body increases with its velocity as
velocity of the body. m0
m where c is velocity of light in vacuum,
v2
1
c2
m is the mass of the body moving with velocity v
and m0 is rest mass of the body.

(3) Charge is quantized. (3) The quantization of mass is yet to be established.

(4) Electric charge is always conserved. (4) Mass is not conserved as it can be changed into
energy and vice-versa.

(5) Force between charges can be attractive or (5) The gravitational force between two masses is
repulsive, according as charges are unlike or like always attractive.
charges.

METHODS OFCHARGING :

A body can be charged by following methods :

(1) By friction : In friction when two bodies are rubbed together, electrons are transferred from one body to
the other. As a result of this one body becomes positively charged while the other negatively charged, e.g.,
when a glass rod is rubbed with silk, the rod becomes positively charged while the silk negatively. However,
ebonite on rubbing with wool becomes negatively charged making the wool positively charged. Clouds also
become charged by friction. In charging by friction in accordance with conservation of charge, both positive
and negative charges in equal amounts appear simultaneously due to transfer of electrons from one body to
the other.

(3) Charging by conduction : Take two conductors, one charged and other uncharged. Bring the
conductors in contact with each other. The charge (whether  ve or  ve ) under its own repulsion will
spread over both the conductors. Thus the conductors will be charged with the same sign. This is called as
charging by conduction (through contact).

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+
+ +
 + + + +

+ + + +

Uncharged Charged Bodies in contact Both are positively charged

Note : A truck carrying explosives has a metal chain touching the ground, to conduct away the charge
produced by friction.

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