Lecture 1 agenda:

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

Coulombs 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.

Electric Charge
Read about electric charge in sections 21.1 and 21.2 in your
text. You should have learned this material in your prior
academic career. If you havent, there is important information
you need to learn now!
There are two kinds of charge.

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.)

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.
Charges are quantized (come in units of e= 1.6x10-19 C).
The charge of an electron is e = 1.6x10-19 coulombs.
The charge of a proton is +e = +1.6x10-19 coulombs.
Thats all the lecture time Ill devote to sections 21.1 and 21.2.

Lecture 1 agenda:
Electric Charge.
Just a reminder of some things you learned back in grade school.

Coulombs 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.

Coulombs Law
Coulombs law quantifies the magnitude of the electrostatic*
force.
Coulombs 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 Nm2/C2.

q1q 2
F k 2
12
r12

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

a note on starting equations

q1q 2
F k 2
12
r12

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.

QA QB
For example, F k
E
D2

is legal and may be used.

Dont 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.

q1q 2

F k 2
12
r12

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 else all components).

1
Also, k
4 0

where

0 8.85 10 12

C2
.
2
N m

Remember, a vector has a magnitude and a direction.

Coulombs 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.
r12

I just told you its OK to

use Coulombs Law for
spherically-symmetric
charge distributions.

If more than two charges are 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!!).
+
+
+

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.