Electricity

Electricity

1.What is electricity

2. Static electricians

3. Dynamic electricians

• electricity, phenomenon associated with stationary or moving electric charges. Electric charge is a fundamental property of matter and is borne by elementary particles. In electricity the particle involved is the electron, which carries a charge designated, by convention, as negative. Thus, the various manifestations of electricity are the result of the accumulation or motion of numbers of electrons.

• Electrostatics is the study of electromagnetic phenomena that occur when there are no moving charges—i.e., after a static equilibrium has been established. Charges reach their equilibrium positions rapidly because the electric force is extremely strong. The mathematical methods of electrostatics make it possible to calculate the distributions of the electric field and of the electric potential from a known configuration of charges, conductors, and insulators.

• Conversely, given a set of conductors with known potentials, it is possible to calculate electric fields in regions between the conductors and to determine the charge distribution on the surface of the conductors. The electric energy of a set of charges at rest can be viewed from the standpoint of the work required to assemble the charges; alternatively, the energy also can be considered to reside in the electric field produced by this assembly of charges. Finally, energy can be stored in a capacitor

• Static electricity is a familiar electric phenomenon in which charged particles are transferred from one body to another. For example, if two objects are rubbed together, especially if the objects are insulators and the surrounding air is dry, the objects acquire equal and opposite charges and an attractive force develops between them. The object that loses electrons becomes positively charged, and the other becomes negatively charged. The force is simply the attraction between charges of opposite sign. The properties of this force were described above; they are incorporated in the mathematical relationship known as Coulomb’s law.

• The bold characters in the equation indicate the vector nature of the force, and the unit vector r̂ is a vector that has a size of one and that points from charge Q2 to charge Q1. The proportionality constant k equals 10−7c2, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum; k has the numerical value of 8.99 × 109 newtons-square metre per coulomb squared (Nm2/C2). Figure 1 shows the force on Q1 due to Q2. A numerical example will help to illustrate this force. Both Q1 and Q2 are chosen arbitrarily to be positive charges, each with a magnitude of 10−6 coulomb. The charge Q1 is located at coordinates x, y, z with values of 0.03, 0, 0, respectively, while Q2 has coordinates 0, 0.04, 0. All coordinates are given in metres

• The magnitude of the force F on charge Q1 as calculated using equation (1) is 3.6 newtons; its direction is shown in Figure 1. The force on Q2 due to Q1 is −