Electrostatics

1.Electrostatics or Static Electricity or

Frictional Electricity
The branch of physics, which deals with
study of charges at rest (static charge),
the force between the static charges
fields and potentials due to these
charges is called as Electrostatics or
Static Electricity.
Frictional Electricity is the electricity
produced by rubbing two suitable bodies
and transfer of electrons from one body
to other.
Historically, this phenonmenon was
discovered by a greek ' Thales of Miletus'
around 600BC. The name electricity was
taken from the Greek word 'Elecktron'.

2.What is Electric Charges

Charge is the fundamental property of material.
Charge exist only in material
Charge is something possessed by
material objects that
make it
possible for them to exert electrical
force and to respond to electrical
force.
There exists only two types of charges,
namely positive and negative.
Like charges repel and unlike charges
attract each other.
Charge is a scalar quantity.
When a body gets the static charge by
any means then body is said to be
electrified or charged. When it has no
charge it is said to be neutral.
Fundamental Electronic Charge (e =
1.6 x 10-19 C). SI unit of charge is

ampere x sec that is called Coulomb ( C )

and is generally denoted by q.
Note: Recently, the existence of quarks
of charge e and e has
been postulated. If the quarks are
detected in any experiment with
concrete practical evidence, then the
minimum value of quantum of charge
will be either e or e. However, the
law of quantiation will hold good.

3.Two Kinds of Charges

It was observed that if two glass rods
rubbed with wool or silk cloth are brought
close to each other, they repel each
other Fig. a. The two strands of wool or
two pieces of silk cloth, with which the
rods were rubbed, also repel each other.
However, the glass rod and wool
attracted each other.
Similarly, two plastic rods rubbed with
cats fur repelled each other Fig. b but
attracted the fur.
On the other hand, the plastic rods
attract the glass rod Fig. c and repel the
silk or wool with which the glass rod is
rubbed. The glass rod repels the fur.
If a plastic rod rubbed with fur is made to
touch two small pith balls suspended by
silk or nylon thread, then the balls repel
each other Fig. d and are also repelled
by the rod.
A similar effect is found if the pith balls
are touched with a glass rod rubbed with
silk Fig. e.
A dramatic observation is that a pith ball
touched with glass rod attracts another
pith ball touched with plastic rod Fig. f.

 It also explains that the charges are compulsorily

developed in pairs equally . +ve in one body and
ve in second.
It establish conservation of charges in the
universe.
The loss of electrons develops +ve charge.
While excess of electrons develop ve charge
It was concluded, that there are only two
kinds of an entity which is called the
electric charge. The experiments on
pith balls suggested that there are two
kinds of electrification and we find that
(i)
(ii)

like charges repel and

Unlike charges attract each other.

A proton is 1837 times heavier than electron

hence it cannot be transferred. Transferring
lighter electron is easier.
Therefore for electrification of matter, only
electrons are active and responsible.

By convention, the charge on glass

rod or cats fur is called positive and
that on plastic rod or silk is termed
negative.
The property which differentiates the two
kinds of charges is called the polarity
of charge.
Note: Only rubbed area of non
conducting body gets charged, and this
charge does not move to other parts of
the body. The charge is static on rubbed
portion only.
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Electron theory of Electrification

Nucleus of atom is positively charged.
The electron revolving around it is negatively
charged.
They are equal in numbers, hence atom is
electrically neutral.
With friction there is transfer of electrons, hence
net charge is developed in the particles.

4.Basic Properties of Charge

If the sizes of charged bodies are very
small as compared to the distances
between them, we treat them as point
charges. All the charge content of the
body is assumed to be concentrated at
one point in space. Some other
properties of the electric charge are
1. Additive of charges :
Charge is the Scalar quantity
Charges can be added by simple rules
of algebra. Addition of equal positive and
negative charge makes Zero charge

If a system contains n charges q1, q2, q3,

, qn, then the total charge of the
system is q1 + q2 + q3 + + qn .
Charge has magnitude but no direction.
Proper signs have to be used while
adding the charges in a system.

2. Charge is conserved It is not

possible to create or destroy net
charge carried by any isolated
system.

By convention, the charge on an

electron is taken to be negative;
therefore charge on an electron is written
as e and that on a proton as +e.

Isolated system (Individual) Electric

charge can neither be created nor
destroyed, it can only be transferred.

The fact that electric charge is always an

integral multiple of e is termed as
quantization of charge.

Charges in pair can be created or

destroyed.

In the International System (SI) of Units,

a unit of charge is called a coulomb and
is denoted by the symbol C.In this
system, the value of the basic unit of
charge is e = 1.602192 1019 C.
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4. Charge Is Transferable
5. Charge Is Always Associated With Mass
6.By Charging Mass Is Changed
7.Charge Is Invariant :
charge does not depend on frame of reference
(charge does not depends on speed )

comparison of Charge And Mass

3. Quantization of charge :
Charge on an electron (-e) and charge
on a proton (+e) are equal and
opposite, and are the minimum charge
that is called basic unit of charge .

Charges are integral multiples of a

basic unit of charge denoted by e.
Thus charge q on a body is always
given by q = ne. where n is any
integer, positive or negative.

CHARGE
Electric charge on the body may be
positive or negative.
Charge carried by the body does
not depend upon the velocity.
Charge is quantized
Electric charge is always conserved

Mass of a

Charge ca
upon the v
Mass is no
Mass can
is not cons
Force
may
be
attractive
or Gravitatio
repulsive, according to the charge
masses is
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Electron theory of Electrification

Nucleus of atom is positively charged.
The electron revolving around it is negatively
charged.

 They are equal in numbers, hence atom is

electrically neutral.
With friction there is transfer of electrons, hence
net charge is developed in the particles.
It also explains that the charges are compulsorily
developed in pairs equally . +ve in one body and

It establish conservation of charges in the

universe.
The loss of electrons develops +ve charge.
While excess of electrons develop ve charge
A proton is 1837 times heavier than electron
hence it cannot be transferred. Transferring
lighter electron is easier.
Therefore for electrification of matter, only
electrons are active and responsible.

Charge and Mass relation

Charge cannot exist without matter.
One carrier of charge is electron which has
mass as well.
Hence if there is charge transfer, mass is
also transferred.
Logically, negatively charged body is
heavier then positively charged body.

Conductors, Insulators and Dielectrics

which
through

Metals, human and animal bodies and

earth are conductors.
Those substances which do not allow
electricity to pass through them
easily are called insulators.

ve in second.

Those
substances
electricity to pass

easily are called conductors. They

have electric charges (electrons) that are
comparatively free to move inside the
material.

allow
them

Most of the non-metals like glass,

porcelain, plastic, nylon, wood offer high
resistance to the passage of electricity
through them.
Insulators are also called Dielectric.
Obviously, dielectric cannot conduct
electricity. However, when a electric
field is applied, induced charges
appear on the surface of the
dielectric. Hence we may define
dielectric as the insulating material which
transmits
electric
effects
without
conducting.
When we bring a charged body in contact
with the earth, all the excess charge on
the body disappears by causing a
momentary current to pass to the ground
through the connecting conductor (such
as our body). This process of sharing the
charges with the earth is called
grounding or earthing.