Physics and Math Chapter 5: Electrostatics and Magnetism Flashcards
What is the SI unit of charge?
The coulomb
What is the fundamental unit of charge?
e = 1.6 x 10^-19 C
What are conductors?
They allow the free and uniform passage of electrons when charged.
What are insulators?
Resist the movement of charge and will have localized areas of charge that do not distribute over the surface of the material.
What is Coulumb’s law?
Gives the magnitude of the electrostatic force vector between two charges. The force vector always points along the line connecting the centers of the two charges.
What does every stationary charge generate?
an electric field, which can exert forces on other charges
What is the electric field?
the ration of the force that is exerted on a test charge to the magnitude of that charge.
Where will positive test charges move? negative?
+ –> direction of the field lines
- –> opposite direction of the field lines
What is electrical potential energy?
The amount of work required to bring the test charge from infinitely far away to a given position in the vincinity of a source charge.
When will the electrical potential energy of a system increase?
When 2 like charges move toward each other or when two like charges move further apart.
When will the electrical potential energy decrease?
When the two opposite charges move toward each other or when two like charges move further apart.
What is the electrical potential?
The electrical potential energy per unit charge.
What is potential difference/voltage?
the change in electrical potential that accompanies the movement of a test charge from one position to another.
What is the unit for electrical potential and voltage?
Volts
Two things about the potential difference
Path independent and depends only on the initial and final positions of the test charge.
