Lecture 1 agenda:

Electric Charge.Just a reminder of some things you learned back in grade school.

Coulomb’s Law (electrical force between charged particles).You must be able to calculate the electrical forces between one or more charged particles.

The electric field.You must be able to calculate the force on a charged particle in an electric field.

Electric field due to point charges.You must be able to calculate electric field of one or more point charges.

Motion of a charged particle in a uniform electric field.You must be able to solve for the trajectory of a charged particle in a uniform electric field.

like charges repel

unlike charges attract

charges can move but charge is conserved

Law of conservation of charge: the net amount of electric charge produced in any process is zero. (Not on your starting equation sheet, but a fact that you can use any time.)

There are two kinds of charge. + -

Electric Charge

Read about electric charge in sections 1.1 and 1.2 in your text. You should have learned this material in your prior academic career. If you haven’t, there is important information you need to learn now!

Although there are two kinds of charged particles in an atom, electrons are the charges that usually move around.

A proton is roughly 2000 times more massive than an electron and are typically bound inside nuclei.

The charge of an electron is –e = –1.6x10-19 coulombs.

The charge of a proton is +e = +1.6x10-19 coulombs.

Charges are quantized (come in units of e= 1.6x10-19 C).

+ -

That’s all the lecture time I’ll devote to sections 1.1 and 1.2.

Lecture 1 agenda:

Electric Charge.Just a reminder of some things you learned back in grade school.

Coulomb’s Law (electrical force between charged particles).You must be able to calculate the electrical forces between one or more charged particles.

The electric field.You must be able to calculate the force on a charged particle in an electric field.

Electric field due to point charges.You must be able to calculate electric field of one or more point charges.

Motion of a charged particle in a uniform electric field.You must be able to solve for the trajectory of a charged particle in a uniform electric field.

Coulomb’s Law

1 22

12

q qF k12 r

Coulomb’s law gives the force (in newtons) between charges q1

and q2 (in units of Coulombs), where r12 is the distance in meters

between the charges, and k=9x109 N·m2/C2.

Coulomb’s law quantifies the magnitude of the electrostatic* force.

*Moving charged particles also exert the Coulomb force on each other.

a note on starting equations

1 22

12

q qF k12 r

is on your starting equation sheet.

In general, you need to begin* solutions with starting equations.

You may begin with any correct variant of a starting equation.

For example, is “legal” and may be used.A B2

Q QF kE D

Don’t get hung up about starting a problem with an equation which is an exact copy of one from the OSE sheet.

*“Begin” does not mean that a starting equation has to be the first thing that appears on your paper. It might be several lines before you use a starting equation.

Force is a vector quantity. Your starting equation gives the magnitude of the force. Use your diagram for the problem to figure out the direction. If the charges are opposite in sign, the force is attractive; if the charges are the same in sign, the force is repulsive.

212

0 20

1 Ck where 8.85 10 .

4 N m

Remember, a vector has a magnitude and a direction.

Also,

1 22

12

q qF k12 r

This equation just gives the magnitude of the force.

I want this class to make you hear little voices in your head.

If a problem asks you to calculate a force, assume that means both magnitude and direction (or all components).

Coulomb’s Law is valid for point charges. If the charged objects are spherical and the charge is uniformly distributed, r12 is the distance between the centers of the spheres.

If more than one charge is involved, the net force is the vector sum of all forces (superposition). For objects with complex shapes, you must add up all the forces acting on each separate charge (calculus!!).

+ -

r12

++

+-

--

I just told you it’s OK to use Coulomb’s Law for spherically-symmetric charge distributions.

Example: a positive charge Q1 = +Q is located a distance d along the y-axis from the origin. A second positive charge Q2 = +Q is located at the origin and a negative charge Q3 = -2Q is located on the x-axis a distance 2d away from Q1. Calculate the net electrostatic force on Q1 due to the other two charges.

To be worked at the blackboard. You should apply the expert techniques you learned in Physics 1135 when you work Physics 2135 problems.