Chapter 21

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 Learning Goals for Chapter 21
Looking forward at …

• how objects become electrically charged, and how we know

that electric charge is conserved.
• how to use Coulomb’s law to calculate the electric force
between charges.
• the distinction between electric force and electric field.
• how to use the idea of electric field lines to visualize and
interpret electric fields.
• how to calculate the properties of electric charge
distributions, including dipoles.

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 Introduction
• Water makes life
possible: The cells of
your body could not
function without
water in which to
dissolve essential
biological molecules.

• What electrical properties of the water molecule allow it to be

such a good solvent?
• We now begin our study of electromagnetism, one of the four
fundamental forces.
• We start with electric charge and look at electric fields.
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 Electric charge
• Plastic rods and fur (real or
fake) are particularly good
for demonstrating
electrostatics, the
interactions between electric
charges that are at rest (or
nearly so).

• After we charge both plastic

rods by rubbing them with
the piece of fur, we find that
the rods repel each other.

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 Electric charge
• When we rub glass rods with
silk, the glass rods also
become charged and repel
each other.

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 Electric charge
• A charged plastic rod attracts a
charged glass rod; furthermore,
the plastic rod and the fur
attract each other, and the glass
rod and the silk attract each
other.

• These experiments and many

others like them have shown
that there are exactly two kinds
of electric charge: The kind on
the plastic rod rubbed with fur
(negative) and the kind on the
glass rod rubbed with silk
(positive).
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 Electric charge and the structure of matter
• The particles of the atom are the
negative electrons (dark blue
spheres in this figure), the
positive protons (red spheres),
and the uncharged neutrons
(gray spheres).

• Protons and neutrons make up

the tiny dense nucleus, which is
surrounded by electrons.

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 Atoms and ions
• A neutral atom has the same
number of protons as electrons.

• The electron “shells” are a

schematic representation of the
actual electron distribution, a
diffuse cloud many times larger
than the nucleus.

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 Atoms and ions
• A positive ion is an atom
with one or more electrons
removed.

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 Atoms and ions
• A negative ion is an atom
with an excess of electrons.

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 Conservation of charge
• The proton and electron have the same magnitude charge.

• The magnitude of charge of the electron or proton is a natural

unit of charge. All observable charge is quantized in this unit.
• The universal principle of charge conservation states that
the algebraic sum of all the electric charges in any closed
system is constant.

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 Conductors and insulators

• Copper is a good conductor of electricity; nylon is a good

insulator. The copper wire shown conducts charge between
the metal ball and the charged plastic rod to charge the ball
negatively.
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 Conductors and insulators

• After it is negatively charged, the metal ball is repelled by a

negatively charged plastic rod.

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 Conductors and insulators

• After it is negatively charged, the metal ball is attracted by a

positively charged glass rod.

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 Charging by induction in 4 steps:
Steps 1 and 2
1. Start with an uncharged
metal ball supported by an
insulating stand.
2. When you bring a
negatively charged rod near
it, without actually
touching it, the free
electrons in the metal ball
are repelled by the excess
electrons on the rod, and
they shift toward the right,
away from the rod.

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 Charging by induction in 4 steps:
Steps 3 and 4
3. While the plastic rod is nearby,
you touch one end of a
conducting wire to the right
surface of the ball and the other
end to the ground.
4. Now disconnect the wire, and
then remove the rod. A net
positive charge is left on the
ball. The earth acquires a
negative charge that is equal in
magnitude to the induced
positive charge remaining on
the ball.
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 Electric forces on uncharged objects
• A charged body can exert forces even on objects that are not
charged themselves.

• If you rub a balloon on the rug and then hold the balloon
against the ceiling, it sticks, even though the ceiling has no
net electric charge.

• After you electrify a comb by

running it through your hair,
you can pick up uncharged bits
of paper or plastic with it.

• How is this possible?

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 Electric forces on uncharged objects
• The negatively charged plastic comb causes a slight shifting
of charge within the molecules of the neutral insulator, an
effect called polarization.

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 Electric forces on uncharged objects
• Note that a neutral insulator is also attracted to a positively
charged comb.

• A charged object of either sign exerts an attractive force on

an uncharged insulator.

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 Electrostatic painting
• Induced positive charge on the metal object attracts the
negatively charged paint droplets.

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 Measuring the electric force between point
charges
• Coulomb studied the interaction
forces of charged particles in
detail in 1784.
• He used a torsion balance similar
to the one used 13 years later by
Cavendish to study the much
weaker gravitational interaction.
• For point charges, Coulomb
found that the magnitude of the
electric force is inversely
proportional to the square of the
distance between the charges.

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 Coulomb’s Law
• Coulomb’s Law: The
magnitude of the electric
force between two point
charges is directly
proportional to the
product of their charges
and inversely proportional
to the square of the
distance between them.

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 Electric field: Introduction Slide 1 of 3

• To introduce the concept of electric field, first consider the

mutual repulsion of two positively charged bodies A and B.

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 Electric field: Introduction Slide 2 of 3
• Next consider body A on its own.

• We can say that body A somehow modifies the properties

of the space at point P.

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 Electric field: Introduction Slide 3 of 3
• We can measure the electric field produced by A with a test
charge.

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 Electric force produced by an electric field

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 The electric field of a point charge

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 The electric field of a point charge
• Using a unit vector that points away from the origin, we can
write a vector equation that gives both the magnitude and the
direction of the electric field:

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 Electric field of a point charge
• A point charge q produces an
electric field at all points in
space.
• The field strength decreases
with increasing distance.

• The field produced by a

positive point charge points
away from the charge.

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 Electric field of a point charge
• A point charge q produces an
electric field at all points in
space.
• The field strength decreases
with increasing distance.

• The field produced by a

positive point charge points
toward the charge.

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 Superposition of electric fields
• The total electric field at a point is the vector sum of the
fields due to all the charges present.

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 Electric field lines
• An electric field line is an imaginary line or curve whose
tangent at any point is the direction of the electric field vector
at that point.

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 Electric field lines of a point charge
• Electric field lines show the
direction of the electric field
at each point.
• The spacing of field lines
gives a general idea of the
magnitude of the electric
field at each point.

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 Electric field lines of a dipole
• Field lines point away from + charges and toward – charges.

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 Electric field lines of two equal positive
charges
• At any point, the electric field has a unique direction, so field
lines never intersect.

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 The water molecule is an electric dipole
• The water molecule as a whole is electrically neutral, but the
chemical bonds within the molecule cause a displacement of
charge.
• The result is a net negative charge on the oxygen end of the
molecule and a net positive charge on the hydrogen end,
forming an electric dipole.

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 The water molecule is an electric dipole
• When dissolved in water, salt dissociates into a positive
sodium ion and a negative chlorine ion, which tend to be
attracted to the negative and positive ends of water
molecules.
• This holds the ions in solution.

• If water molecules were not

electric dipoles, water would
be a poor solvent, and almost
all of the chemistry that occurs
in aqueous solutions would be
impossible!

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 Force and torque on a dipole
• When a dipole is placed
in a uniform electric
field, the net force is
always zero, but there
can be a net torque on
the dipole.

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