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GeneralPhysics12 - Q3 - Ver4 - Mod1 ELECTRIC CHARGE AND ELECTRIC FIELD - v4
GeneralPhysics12 - Q3 - Ver4 - Mod1 ELECTRIC CHARGE AND ELECTRIC FIELD - v4
NOT
General Physics 2
Quarter 3 – Module 1
Electric Charge and Electric Field
General Physics 2
Quarter 3 – Module 1
Electric Charge and Electric Field
FAIR USE AND CONTENT DISCLAIMER: This SLM (Self Learning Module) is
for educational purposes only. Borrowed materials (i.e. songs, stories, poems,
pictures, photos, brand names, trademarks, etc.) included in these modules are
owned by their respective copyright holders. The publisher and authors do not
represent nor claim ownership over them.
Table of Contents
THIRD QUARTER
Lesson 1: Electric Charge
What Is It: Law of Charges .........................................................................................1
What Is It: Conductors and Insulators .....................................................................2
What Is It: Types of Charging ....................................................................................3
What I Have Learned ...................................................................................................4
What I can do ..................................................................................................................5
Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 15
Assessment: (Post-Test) ...................................................................................................................... 16
References................................................................................................................................................. 17
What This Module is About
This module demonstrates your understanding on the concepts of Electric
Charges and Electric Field. It specifically discusses about Electric Charges,
Coulomb’s Law, and Electric Forces and Electric Field.
This module will help you explore the key concepts on topics that will help you
answer the questions pertaining to direct-current circuits.
4. Calculate the net electric force on a point charge exerted by a system of point charges
STEM_GP12EM-IIIa-6;
6. Calculate the electric field due to a system of point charges using Coulomb’s law and the
superposition principle STEM_GP12EM-IIIa-10
i
How to Learn from this Module
To achieve the objectives cited above, you are to do the following:
• Take your time reading the lessons carefully.
• Follow the directions and/or instructions in the activities and exercises diligently.
• Answer all the given tests and exercises.
ii
What I Know
.
Multiple Choice. Select the letter of the best answer among the given choices.
4. What is the direction of the electric field at the test point on the -x-axis, 50 cm from the
charge q = -5.00 nC which is located at the origin?
A) eastward B) westward C) northward D) southward
5. An electron traveling horizontally from North to South enters a region where a uniform
electric field is directed downward. What is the direction of the electric force exerted on the
electron once it has entered the field?
A) downward B) upward C) to the east D) to the west
6. The electric field has a magnitude of 3.0 N/C at a distance of 60 cm from a point charge.
What is the charge?
A) 1.4 nC B) 120 pC C) 36 mC D) 12 mC
7. What is the electric field strength at a point 50 cm from a charge q = + 5.00 nC?
A) 180 N/C B) 360 N/C C) 540 N/C D) 720 N/C
8. A 1.65 nC charge with a mass of 1.5 x 10-15 kg experiences an acceleration of 6.33 x 107
m/s2 in an electric field. What is the magnitude of the electric field?
A) 14.95 N/C B) 29.35 N/C C) 57.55 N/C D) 2.67 x 10-19 N/C
9. Three point charges are located on the x-axis. The first charge, q1 = +10 µC, is at x = -1.0
m. The second charge, q2 = +20 µC, is at the origin. The third charge, q3 = - 30 µC, is
located at x = +2.0 m. What is the net force on q2?
A) 6.3 N to the negative x-direction C) B) 3.15 N to the positive x- direction
1.50 N to the negative x- direction D) 4.80 N to the positive x- direction
10. What is the magnitude of the net electric field at (+1.0 m, 0) due to the three charges in
number 9?
A) 198, 256 N/C B) 297, 348 N/C C) 395, 425 N/C D) 472, 500 N/C
iii
Lesson
1 Electric Charge
What is it
The term electricity came from the Greek work elektron, or amber. It is given the name
electricity by Sir Wilhelm Gilbert because amber had been the first substance known by the
ancients to exhibit electrification by rubbing. A plastic comb rubbed with a piece of fur can
attract little bits of paper. This ability to attract resembles that of a magnet. However, the
attraction of magnets is limited to objects made of iron, while amber attracts all substances.
This attractive force is known as electrostatic force.
Atoms have electric charges inside them. In the center of each atom is the nucleus.
This is made up of protons (carriers of positive charges) and neutrons (uncharged particles).
In the outer part of the atom are found the orbiting electrons (carriers of negative charges).
The most precise value of the mass of proton is 1.67262171(29) x 10-27 kg, while that of the
electron is 9.1093826(16) x 10-31 kg. The most precise value of the mass of neutron is
1.67492728(29) x 10-27 kg. The most precise value of the magnitude of the charge of an
electron or a proton, which is denoted by e, is 1.60217653(14) x 10-19 Coulomb, C. The
numbers in parentheses are the uncertainties in the last two digits. Note that the masses of
the proton and neutron are nearly equal and are roughly 2000 times the mass of the electron.
Over 99.9% of the mass of any atom is concentrated in its nucleus. Normally, atoms have zero
net charge. They are electrically neutral because they have an equal number of protons and
electrons. But electrons do not always stay in the atoms, instead they can be removed by
rubbing.
When a plastic comb is rubbed with fur and held near a pith ball, the pith ball is attracted
to the comb. The pith ball swings away from the comb after touching the comb. If a glass rod
rubbed with silk is brought near the pith ball, it will react just as it did with the comb. It was
contended that something, a charge, had been added to the comb or the rod to attract the pith
ball. This charge is called an electric charge.
The experiments described above and many others like them have shown that there
are exactly two kinds of electric charges: the kind on the plastic comb rubbed with fur and the
kind on the glass rod rubbed with silk. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) suggested calling these
two kinds of charge negative and positive, respectively, and these names are still used. The
plastic rod and the silk have negative charge; the glass rod and the fur have positive charge.
Two positive charges or two negative charges repel each other. A positive charge and
a negative charge attract each other.
1
The above statement is the same as saying, “Like charges repel while unlike
charges attract.”
Figure 1.1 Experiments in electrostatics. (a) Negatively charged objects repel each other. (b)
Positively charged objects repel each other. (c) Positively charged objects and negatively charged
objects attract each other.
Contained in the previous discussion are two very important principles. First is the
principle of conservation of charge:
“The algebraic sum of all electric charges in any closed system is constant.”
If we rub together a plastic rod and a piece of fur, both initially uncharged, the rod
acquires a negative charge (since it takes electrons from the fur) and the fur acquires a positive
charge of the same magnitude (since it has lost as many electrons as the rod has gained).
Hence the total electric charge on the two bodies together does not change. In any charging
process, charge is not created nor destroyed; it is merely transferred from one body to
another.
Every observable amount of electric charge is always an integer multiple of this basic
unit. We say that charge is quantized. A familiar example of quantization is money. When you
pay cash for an item in a store, you have to do it in one-cent increments. Cash cannot be
divided into amounts smaller than one cent, and electric charge cannot be divided into
amounts smaller than the charge of one electron or proton.
Electric charges are more easily moved in some materials. This characteristic led to
the classification of materials into two groups – conductors and insulators. Materials whose
2
electric charges are free to move within are called conductors. In some materials, electric
charges are not free to move within. Such materials are called insulators.
Most metals are good conductors, while most nonmetals are insulators. Within a solid
metal such as copper, one or more outer electrons in each atom become detached and can
move freely throughout the material. The motion of these negatively charged electrons carries
charge through the metal. The other electrons remain bound to the positively charged nuclei,
which themselves are bound in nearly fixed positions within the material. In an insulator there
are no, or very few, free electrons, and electric charge cannot move freely through the
material. Some materials called semiconductors are intermediate in their properties between
good conductors and good insulators. Certain materials known as superconductors become
perfect conductors at very low temperatures.
Figure 1.2 Copper is a good conductor of electricity; nylon is a good insulator. (a) The copper wire
conducts charge between the metal ball and the charged plastic rod to charge the ball negatively.
Afterward, the metal ball is (b) repelled by a negatively charged plastic rod and (c) attracted to a
positively charged glass rod.
There is a different technique in which the plastic rod can give another body a charge
of opposite sign without losing any of its own charge. This process is called charging by
induction. Induction is the movement of electrons to one part of an object by the electric field
of another object. In the induction process, the opposite type of charge is produced.
3
Not all of the free electrons move to the right surface of the ball. As soon as any
induced charge develops, it exerts forces toward the left on the other free electrons. These
electrons are repelled by the negative induced on the right and attracted toward the positive
induced charge on the left. The system reaches an equilibrium state in which the force toward
the right on an electron, due to the charged rod, is just balanced by the force toward the left
due to the induced charge. If we remove the charged rod, the free electrons shift back to the
left, and the original neutral condition is restored.
Instruction: Answer the following questions. Write your answer in a clean sheet of intermediate
or yellow paper.
1. What will be your charge if you scrape electrons from your feet while scuffing across
the rug?
3. What are the two ways of charging? Briefly explain each way.
4. Why does a rubbed inflated balloon when brought near your arm, but not touching it,
causes the hairs on your arm to raise?
4
What I can do
Deflecting water
Instructions:
1. Rub a comb vigorously with a piece of cloth (using it to comb your hair repeatedly would
also do).
2. Bring it close to, but not touching, a vertical unbroken thin stream of water (a laminar
flow).
3. Observe what happens. Write your observation/s and the answer to the following
questions in your activity notebook.
Questions:
5
Lesson
2 Coulomb’s Law
What is it
“The magnitude of the electric force between two point charges is directly
proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of
the distance between them.”
6
In mathematical terms, the magnitude F of the force that each of two point charges q1
and q2 a distance r apart exerts on the other can be expressed as
|�1�2| 1 |�1 �2 |
�=� = Eqn. 1.2.1
�2 4��0 �2
where k is a proportionality constant whose numerical value depends on the system of units
used. The approximate value of k is 9.0 x 109 N∙m2/C2. The constant Ɛ0 has a value of 8.854
x 10-12 C2/N∙m2. The absolute value bars are used in Eqn. 2.1 because the charges q1 and q2
can either be positive or negative, while the force magnitude F is always positive.
The direction of the forces the two charges exert on each other are always along the
line joining them. When the charges have the same sign, either both positive or both negative,
the forces are repulsive; when the charges have opposite signs, the forces are attractive. The
two forces obey Newton’s third law; they are always equal in magnitude and opposite in
direction, even when the charges are not equal in magnitude.
Sample Problems:
1. Two charges are on the x-axis. Charge q1 = +25 nC is at x = 4.00 cm while charge
q2 = -75nC is at x = 7.00 cm. Find the magnitude and direction of
a) the electric force that q1 exerts on q2; and
b) the electric force the q2 exerts on q1.
0 4 cm 7 cm
Solution:
Free-body diagram:
⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑
�1��2 q2 q1 ⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑
�2��1
Since the two charges have opposite signs, the force is attractive. Charge q1 will tend to pull
q2 towards its location and, simultaneously, charge q2 will tend to pull q1 towards its location.
b) Remember that Newton’s third law applies to the electric force so,
⃑⃑⃑
⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑⃑ = 0.019 N, eastward
�2��1
7
2. Three charges and their specific locations are given as
follows:
q1 = - 20 nC; (0, 2.00 cm)
q2 = + 30 nC; (-1.00 cm, 4.00 cm)
q3 = + 10 nC; (-3.00 cm, 0 cm)
Determine the magnitude and direction of the net force on
q3 using component method.
Solution:
Free-body diagram:
2 2
� = ���−1 | | = 33.690 � = ���−1 | | = 26.570
3 4
x-component y-component
F1on3x = +F1on3 cos β F1on3y = +F1on3 sin β
= +k {|q1q3|/(r13)2} cos β = +k {|q1q3|/(r13)2} sin β
= +1.16 x 10-3 N = +7.70 x 10-4 N
F2on3x = -F2on3 sin Ɵ F2on3y = -F2on3 sin Ɵ
= -k {|q2q3|/(r23)2} sin Ɵ = -k {|q2q3|/(r23)2} cos Ɵ
= -5.96 x 10-4 N = -1.19 x 10-3 N
Fnetx = F1on3x + F2on3x Fnety = F1on3y + F2on3y
= +5.64 x 10-4 N = -4.20 x 10-4 N
2
���� = √[(����−� )2 + (����−� ) ] = 7.03 × 10−4 �
8
What I Have Learned
Instruction: Solve the following problems completely and neatly. Write your solution in a clean
sheet of intermediate or yellow paper.
1. Three point charges are arranged on a line. Charge q3 = +5.00 nC and is at the origin.
Charge q2 = -3.00 nC and is at x = +4.00 cm. Charge q1 is at x = +2.00 cm. What is q1
(magnitude and sign) if the net force on q3 is zero?
2. Two point charges are placed as follows: charge q1 = -1.50 nC is at y = +6.00 m and charge
q2 = +3.20 nC is at the origin. What is the total force (magnitude and direction) exerted by
these two charges on a negative point charge q3 = -5.00 nC located at (2.00 m, -4.00 m)?
9
Lesson
What is it
When two electrically charged particles in empty space interact, how does each one
know the other is there? What goes on in the space between them to communicate the effect
of each one to the other? We can begin to answer these questions, and at the same time
reformulate Coulomb’s law in a very useful way, by using the concept of electric field.
Electric Field
�
� = �� Eqn. 1.3.1
2
The electric force is a vector quantity and so is the electric field. The direction of the electric
field is along the line connecting the field point P and the source charge q1. The field lines
produced by positive charges are directed radially outward while that of negative charges are
directed radially inward.
10
Note that Fe is actually the electric force between the interacting charges q 1 and q2.
Incorporating Eqn. 1.2.1 to Eqn. 1.3.1 we will have
�1
�=�
�2
In general, the magnitude of the electric field is
|�|
�=� Eqn. 1.3.2
�2
where q is the source charge (source of the electric field) and r is the distance between the
source charge and any field point P surrounding it.
11
Sample Problems:
1. A positive charge of 10-8 coulombs (C) experiences a force of 0.25 N when located at a
certain point in an electric field. Find the intensity (magnitude) of the electric field at that
point.
Solution:
� 0.25 �
�= = = 2.5 × 107 �/�
� 10−8 �
2. A positive charge, q = +20 nC, is on the y-axis at y = +4.00 cm. (a) Determine the magnitude
and direction of the electric field at the origin. (b) What will be the magnitude and direction
of the electric field at the origin if the charge is -20 nC?
Solution:
(a)
The charge is positive so the electric field lines are directed radially outward. At the origin, the
field line extends downward so the direction of the electric field is southward.
(b) If the charge is -20 nC, the field lines are directed radially inward towards the charge. So,
the electric field line at the origin will be directed upward (northward). The magnitude of
the electric field has the same value as when the charge is positive.
12
3. Three charges and their specific locations are given as follows:
q1 = - 20 nC; (0, 2.00 cm)
q2 = + 30 nC; (-1.00 cm, 4.00 cm)
q3 = + 10 nC; (-3.00 cm, 0 cm)
Determine the magnitude and direction of the net electric field at the field point P (2.00 cm,
0) using component method.
Illustration:
�
��� = √(�. �� �)� + (�. �� �)� = �. ��� � � = ���−� ( ) = ���
�
�
��� = √(�. �� �)� + (�. �� �)� = �. �� � � = ���−� ( ) = ��. ���
�
x-component y-component
E1x = - E1 cos β E1y = + E1 sin β
= - 162,345.94 N/C = + 162,345.94 N/C
E2x = + E2 cos Ɵ E2y = - E2 sin Ɵ
= + 64,800.15 N/C = - 86,399.88 N/C
E3x = + E3 E3y = 0
= + 36,000.00 N/C
Enetx = - 61,545.79 N/C Enety = + 75,946.06 N/C
2
���� = √(����� )2 + (����� ) = 97,753.20 �/�
13
What I Have Learned
b) At what distance from this particle does its electric field have a magnitude of 12.0 N/C?
2. Point charge q1 = -5.00 nC at the origin and point charge q2 = +3.00 nC is on the x-axis at x
= 3.00 cm. Point P is on the y-axis at y = 4.00 cm.
a) Calculate the electric fields E1 and E 2 at point P due to the charges q1 and q2. Express
your results in terms of unit vectors.
b) Use the results of part (a) to obtain the resultant field at P, expressed in unit vector form.
3. A +2.00 nC point charge is at the origin, and a second -5.00 nC point charge is on the x-
axis at x = 0.800 m.
a) Find the electric field (magnitude and direction) at each of the following points on the x-
axis: i) x = 0.200 m; ii) x = 1.20 m; iii) x = -0.200 m.
b) Find the net electric force that the two charges would exert on the electron placed at
each point in part (a).
14
Summary
Charge cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred from one body to another
by friction or rubbing.
There are two ways of charging an object. It can be through direct contact, which is called
conduction. Another way of charging does not need direct contact and we call it charging by
means of induction.
Materials that permit electric charge to move within them are called conductors while those
that do not are called insulators. Most metals are good conductors while most nonmetals are
good insulators.
Coulomb’s law governs the interaction of charges. The electrostatic force between charges q1
and q2 is directly proportional to the magnitude of the product of the charges and inversely
proportional to the square of the separation distance between them. The direction of the force
is always along the line connecting the charges. If the charges are both positive or both
negative the force is repulsive; if the charges have opposite signs, the force is attractive. The
force of interaction obeys Newton’s third law of motion.
The strength of the field at a particular point is directly proportional to the magnitude of the
charge producing the field and inversely proportional to square of the distance between the
field point and the location of the charge. The closer is the field point from the source charge,
the stronger is the field strength.
15
Assessment: (Post-Test)
Multiple Choice. Select the letter of the best answer from among the given choices.
4. What is the direction of the electric field at the test point on the -x-axis, 50 cm from the
charge q = +5.00 nC which is located at the origin?
A) eastward B) westward C) northward D) southward
5. An electron traveling horizontally from North to South enters a region where a uniform
electric field is directed downward. What is the direction of the electric force exerted on the
electron once it has entered the field?
A) downward B) upward C) to the east D) to the west
6. The electric field has a magnitude of 3.0 N/C at a distance of 30 cm from a point charge.
What is the charge?
A) 1.4 nC B) 30 pC C) 36 mC D) 12 mC
7. What is the electric field strength at a point 50 cm from a charge q = + 5.00 nC?
A) 180 N/C B) 360 N/C C) 540 N/C D) 720 N/C
8. A 1.65 nC charge with a mass of 1.5 x 10-15 kg experiences an acceleration of 6.33 x 107
m/s2 in an electric field. What is the magnitude of the electric field?
A) 14.95 N/C B) 29.35 N/C C) 57.55 N/C D) 2.67 x 10-19 N/C
9. Three point charges are located on the x-axis. The first charge, q1 = +10 µC, is at x = -1.0
m. The second charge, q2 = +20 µC, is at the origin. The third charge, q3 = - 30 µC, is
located at x = +2.0 m. What is the net force on q2?
A) 6.3 N to the negative x-direction B) 1.50 N to the negative x- direction
C) 3.15 N to the positive x- direction D) 4.80 N to the positive x- direction
10. What is the magnitude of the net electric field at (+1.0 m, 0) due to the three charges in
number 9?
A) 198, 256 N/C B) 297, 348 N/C C) 472,500 N/C D) 655, 490 N/C
16
References:
FAIR USE AND CONTENT DISCLAIMER: This SLM (Self Learning Module) is
for educational purposes only. Borrowed materials (i.e. songs, stories, poems,
pictures, photos, brand names, trademarks, etc.) included in these modules are
owned by their respective copyright holders. The publisher and authors do not
represent nor claim ownership over them.
17