Answer:What happens when you plug a pickle into an electrical outlet? Just what is the “static” that makes your socks stick together when they come out of the dryer? Here we’ll explore electric charges, forces, and fields.
Electricity is almost certainly an integral part of your daily life. But how much do you know about the stuff that powers the screen you’re reading this on? On this page we’ve assembled a variety of resources to help you guide your students in an exploration of the principles of electric fields, potential difference (voltage), and electric current.
Explanation:
Theory
First, let’s establish some definitions and key principles. The basic physical units of electricity are charges. These entities can be positive or negative; there is a repulsive force between like charges and an attractive force between opposite charges. These are not two different forces, but rather a single long-range electric force (Felec); its agent is the electric field (E), a property of the region around a charge. The electric field increases in strength with decreasing distance from a charge, as does the electric force — stronger electric fields exert larger electric forces on charges. The electric fields of positive and negative charges are almost identical except for the crucial difference that they exert forces in opposite directions on a nearby charge of a given species (positive or negative). We’ll define everything we talk about from here on out in terms of positive charges — not the most convenient convention, as we’ll see, but a nearly universal one.
Answers & Comments
Answer:What happens when you plug a pickle into an electrical outlet? Just what is the “static” that makes your socks stick together when they come out of the dryer? Here we’ll explore electric charges, forces, and fields.
Electricity is almost certainly an integral part of your daily life. But how much do you know about the stuff that powers the screen you’re reading this on? On this page we’ve assembled a variety of resources to help you guide your students in an exploration of the principles of electric fields, potential difference (voltage), and electric current.
Explanation:
Theory
First, let’s establish some definitions and key principles. The basic physical units of electricity are charges. These entities can be positive or negative; there is a repulsive force between like charges and an attractive force between opposite charges. These are not two different forces, but rather a single long-range electric force (Felec); its agent is the electric field (E), a property of the region around a charge. The electric field increases in strength with decreasing distance from a charge, as does the electric force — stronger electric fields exert larger electric forces on charges. The electric fields of positive and negative charges are almost identical except for the crucial difference that they exert forces in opposite directions on a nearby charge of a given species (positive or negative). We’ll define everything we talk about from here on out in terms of positive charges — not the most convenient convention, as we’ll see, but a nearly universal one.