Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Lesson 1.1
Methods of Electrostatic Charging
Contents
Introduction 1

Learning Objectives 2

Warm Up 2

Learn about It! 3

Electrostatics 3
Electric Charges 3
Interaction of Charges 4
Conductors and Insulators 5
Methods of Charging 6
Structure of the Atom 6
Charging by Friction 7
Charging by Conduction 8
Charging by Induction 9
Conservation of Charge 11

Key Points 11

Check Your Understanding 12

Challenge Yourself 14

Bibliography 15
Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Lesson 1.1

Methods of Electrostatic Charging

Introduction
Eating food is the primary process of how we can intake essential vitamins and minerals
that are important for different chemical processes in our bodies. Different elements make
up the food that we eat. Elements are made up of atoms, which are then composed of
three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Among these subatomic
particles, protons and electrons are charged. The interaction between charged particles
explains a lot of phenomena that take place in our everyday life. In this unit, we will be
focusing on electrically charged particles and their interactions. In this chapter, we begin
our study of electromagnetism by examining the nature of electric charge and how they are
transferred from one material to another.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Learning Objectives DepEd Competencies

In this lesson, you should be able to do the ● Describe using a diagram charging
following: by rubbing and charging by
induction
● Identify the two types of charges:
(STEM_GP12EMIIIa-1).
positive and negative. ● Explain the role of electron
transfer in electrostatic charging
● Predict charge distributions, and
by rubbing
the resulting attraction or (STEM_GP12EMIIIa-2).
repulsion, in a system of charged ● Describe experiments to show

insulators and conductors. electrostatic charging by induction

(STEM_GP12EMIIIa-3).
● Explain how charging by rubbing, ● State that there are positive and
charging by conduction, and negative charges, and that charge
is measured in coulombs
charging by induction takes place.
(STEM_GP12EMIIIa-4).
● State the law of conservation of ● Predict charge distributions, and
the resulting attraction or
charge.
repulsion, in a system of charged
insulators and conductors
(STEM_GP12EMIIIa-5).

Warm Up
Roll that Can 15 minutes
This activity introduces the nature of charges and how charges are transferred from
charged materials.

Materials
● air pump
● meter stick
● balloon

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

● empty tin can

Procedure
1. Inflate the balloon using an air pump.
2. Group yourselves with an equal number of members.
3. Position yourself with your group members at least three meters apart.
4. Rub the balloon to your hair. Then, use the balloon to move the tin can without
touching it. Once you reach the 3-m mark, give the balloon to your groupmate.
5. Continue until you reach the finish line.
6. The first group who finishes wins.

Guide Questions
1. What happens with the balloon as you rub it on your hair?
2. Will the tin can move if you did not rub it on your hair? Why or why not?
3. What do you think are the factors that can affect the strength of attraction between
the can and the balloon?

Learn about It!

Electrostatics
The interaction of charges when they are stationary is crucial to understand electricity and
magnetism. The study of stationary charges is called electrostatics.

Electric Charges
Electric charge is the fundamental property of matter that is carried by elementary
particles. Benjamin Franklin, an American physicist, carried out a series of experiments
involving flying kites during thunderstorms which led to the discovery of electric charge. He
named the charge on a glass rod rubbed with silk as positive electricity. The charge on
materials similar to ebonite (a very hard form of rubber) rubbed with animal fur was
referred to as negative. Franklin also discovered that a charged conducting sphere has no
electric field inside it since the field and the charges are always outside the sphere.
Benjamin Franklin used the notations positive and negative to describe charges. This

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

convention is still adopted until today.

In 1897, J.J. Thomson discovered the presence of electrons. Through a series of

experiments, it was found out that all electrons present in every atom have the same
charge. Rutherford’s experiment showed that atoms also contain protons that have an
opposite charge of an electron. By convention, the negative charge is assigned to the
electron while the positive charge is assigned to the proton. There are only two types of
charges, and materials can acquire these charges depending on the number of protons and
electrons present in them. Charges are measured in coulombs or C.

Interaction of Charges
Experiments show that positively charged objects are attracted to negatively charged
objects but repelled by any other positively charged object. Figure 1.1.1 summarized these
interactions.

Figure 1.1.1. The diagrams show the interaction of (a) opposite and (b) like charges.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Why can there still be an attractive force between a

neutral object and a charged object?

An attraction between charged and uncharged objects is still possible through charged
separation in the uncharged object. In Figure 1.1.2, electrons in the neutral sphere are
attracted to the positive sphere (sphere A) and move towards it. The electrons are already
closer to the positive charges in sphere A than the fixed positive charges on B. The overall
force is towards sphere A as the force between two charges increases with a decrease in
distance.

Figure 1.1.2. The diagram shows that there is an attractive interaction between a neutral
object and a charged object.

Conductors and Insulators

There are two types of materials based on the ability of the object to let electrons move
through it. Conductors are materials that permit the electric charge to move easily from
one region of the material to another. On the other hand, insulators are materials that do
not let this happen. It can be seen in Figure 1.1.3 that the presence of a charged rod does
not affect the arrangement of the charges in an insulator unlike in a conductor.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Figure 1.1.3. The diagrams show the effect of a charged rod to an insulator (left) and a
conductor (right).

Methods of Charging
Structure of the Atom
To easily understand different methods of charging, it is vital to have a mental image of the
structure of atoms. Atoms are made up of three subatomic particles namely: electrons,
protons, and neutrons. The first two particles are negatively and positively charged,
respectively. Neutrons, on the other hand, are neutral.
The protons and neutrons are densely concentrated into
a very small point in the atom, making up the nucleus.
The number of protons determines the element’s atomic
number of the material. Thus, the number of protons is
the fingerprint of the materials. Electrons surround the
nucleus. To compare how small the nucleus is, consider
an atom to be a few kilometers across. At this enlarged
version, its nucleus would be only the size of a tennis ball,
and the electrons are several kilometers away from it, as
shown in Figure 1.1.4. Electrons can easily jump from
one material to another. Thus, electrons are the charge
carriers.

Charging by Friction
Objects are usually electrically neutral or uncharged, but they may become electrically

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

charged when they are rubbed against another material. When one material is rubbed
against another, there is friction between them, and electrons may be transferred from one
material onto the other. The material that has gained electrons is now negatively charged,
and the material that lost electrons is positively charged. Examples of electrostatic
experiments can be seen in Figure 1.1.5.

Figure 1.1.5. Diagrams showing experiments in electrostatics. Recall that like charges repel
while opposite charges attract.

What type of charge is transferred from one

material to another during charging by friction?

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Between two objects that are being rubbed, how

can you determine which will become negatively
charged and which will become positively charged?

The triboelectric series (also called the electronegativity scale) ranks materials based on
their tendency to acquire charge. These materials are arranged based on their electron
affinities. Electron affinity is a property of a single, unbound atom, and it quantifies the
amount of energy released when an electron attaches to the atom. The higher the electron
affinity of an object, the greater its tendency to attract electrons. In Figure 1.1.5, plastic has
a higher electron affinity than fur and silk than glass. A sample triboelectric series is shown
in the figure below.

A sample triboelectric series for select materials.

Charging by Conduction
Charging by conduction, also known as charging by contact, occurs when a charged object
is in contact with a neutral object. Figure 1.1.6 shows how an uncharged metal object can
be charged by a negatively charged conductor.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Figure 1.1.6. Charging by conduction between a charged and a neutral metal object.

Suppose that these two objects are placed on an insulating stand such that they can be
easily moved around without being affected by other objects around them. Separation of
charges in the neutral object occurs when these two objects are placed close to each other.
The electrons are repelled on the other side away from the negatively charged object. At this
point, no charges can be transferred since they are not in contact yet. Once the objects are
in contact with each other, some of the negative charges from the negatively charged object
will transfer to the uncharged metal object. When the process of charging by conduction is
complete, the initially uncharged object now has an excess negative charge. The initially
charged object is still negatively charged but has less excess negative charge than before.

Charging by Induction
Aside from charging by friction and by conduction, an object can also be charged if they are
not in contact. This method is called charging by induction. Figure 1.1.7 shows how
charging by induction occurs.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Figure 1.1.7. The diagram shows the process of how to charge an initial neutral metal
sphere through induction.

The ball is a conductor because it allows the movement of the charges to take place. The
presence of the negative rod makes the positive charges to be induced in the side of the
sphere near the rod. The negative rod, on the other hand, tends to stay at the opposite side
of the rod since negative charges tend to repel each other. When a grounded wire is
connected to the sphere, negative charges go directly to Earth, leaving the positive charges
behind. As the ground is disconnected and the rod is removed, the sphere is left as
positively charged.

Did You Know?

Electrical connections in appliances usually have three wires. The
first two wires are required connections in an electrical circuit.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

These are called the “hot wire” and “neutral wire.” The “hot wire”
carries the normal voltage to the appliance. The “neutral wire”
carries the current returning to the appliance. For a three-pronged
plug, the round prong is a wire connected to the ground.

A three-pronged plug.

Conservation of Charge
In general, methods of charging follow a the law of conservation of charge. It states that
the algebraic sum of all the electric charges in any closed system is constant. For example,
when you rub a piece of plastic rod with fur, the rod becomes negatively charged, and the
fur becomes positively charged. The rod gains negative charge, and the fur acquires the
same magnitude of positive charge since it loses electrons. Hence the total electric charge
on the two bodies together does not change. In any charging process, the charge is not
created or destroyed; it is merely transferred from one body to another.

Key Points
___________________________________________________________________________________________

● There are two types of charges: positive and negative.

● Changes in charges are brought by the movement of negatively charged
particles.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

● Forces between charges can be either repulsive or attractive. Like charges

attract and unlike charges repel.
● There are three methods of charging an object: charging by friction, charging by
conduction, and charging by induction.
○ Charging by friction can happen when you rub two objects with unequal
electron affinity. The object with higher electron affinity acquires the
negative charge, while the other object with lower electron affinity acquires
the positive charge.
○ Charging by conduction occurs when a charged object comes in contact
with a neutral object.
○ Charging by induction can happen due to induced charges. The charges in
a conducting object can be rearranged with the presence of an external
charged object.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Check Your Understanding

A. Write T if the statement is true and F if false.

__________ 1. There are three types of charges: positive, negative, and neutral.
__________ 2. The only factor that affects the charge of objects when you rub them
is their electron affinity
__________ 3. Charges are not always conserved when you charge an object by
induction.
__________ 4. Protons are the charge carriers.
__________ 5. Conductors permit the movement of charges through it.
__________ 6. Charging by friction can take place even if two objects are not in
contact with each other.
__________ 7. In a neutral sphere, the number of positive charges is more than the
number of negative charges.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

__________ 8. Triboelectric series ranks materials based on their electron affinities.

__________ 9. The number of protons determines the element of an atom.
__________ 10. Protons and neutrons can freely move from one object to another.
__________ 11. Charges in a conducting sphere tend to stay at the surface.
__________ 12. A grounded wire transfers excess charges to Earth.
__________ 13. Unlike charges attract.
__________ 14. The algebraic sum of all the electric charges in any closed system is
constant.
__________ 15. Electrons hang out around the nucleus.

B. Using the letters A to E, arrange the following steps in charging an

object through induction.

1. Attach the metal sphere on an insulating stand. ____

2. Put the rod close to the sphere but not too close for the objects to touch. ____
3. The charges will be rearranged in the sphere. ____
4. Attach a grounded wire to the metal sphere. ____
5. Remove the grounded wire and move the rod away from the metal sphere. ____

C. Draw the charge distribution of the following neutrally charged

spheres.

1.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

2.

Challenge Yourself
Answer the following questions.

1. In the discussion, charging by conduction was explained using a

negatively charged object in contact with a neutral object. What do
you think will happen if, instead a negatively charged rod, a
positively charged rod comes in contact with a neutral metal
sphere?
2. Rubber rods charged by rubbing with cat fur repel each other. Glass
rods charged by rubbing with silk repel each other. The charged
rubber rod and the charged glass rod attract each other. Explain
how this happens.
3. An electroscope is a device used in the past to detect the presence
of very small charges on objects shown in the figure below. Its lower
part is insulated from outside and only the metal object on top is
exposed. The insulated part is composed of thin metal leaves that
hang near each other. They are connected by a metal rod that
extends up to the outer part of the device. This is also attached to
the metal object on top. Suppose you place an object near the metal
object on top, how will you know if this object is charged or not?
Explain your answer.

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Unit 1: Electric Charge and Coulomb’s Law

A homemade electroscope.

4. Explain what neutral is. Why is it not considered as a third charge?

5. Why do lightning rods need to be grounded?

Bibliography
Freedman, Roger A. and Young, Hugh D. Sears and Zemansky's University Physics with Modern
Physics (13th ed). USA: Pearson Education, 2012.

Homer, David and Bowen-Jones, Michael. Physics Oxford IB Diploma Programme. UK: Oxford
University Press, 2014.

Hewitt, Paul G. Conceptual Physics (11th ed). New York: Pearson Education, 2010.

Sang, David, Graham, Jones, et.al. Cambridge International AS and A Level Physics Coursebook.
UK: University Printing House, 2014.

Young, Hugh D., Roger A. Freedman, and A. Lewis Ford. Sears and Zemansky’s University
Physics with Modern Physics (13th ed). USA: Pearson Education, 2012.

1.1. Methods of Electrostatic Charging 15