common example of electric discharge is the lightning that we see in the sky during
thunderstorms
Static means anything that does not move or change with time
. We also experience a sensation of an electric shock either while opening the door of a car or
holding the iron bar of a bus after sliding from our seat. The reason for these experiences is
discharge of electric charges through our body, which were accumulated due to rubbing of
insulating surfaces. this is due to generation of static electricity
the credit of discovery of the fact that amber rubbed with wool or silk cloth attracts light objects
goes to Thales of Miletus, Greece, around 600 BC
The name electricity is coined from the Greek word elektron meaning amber.
Glass rod with wool/silk: Attracts both, but the rods repel each other.
Plastic rod with cat’s fur: Attracts the fur, but the rods repel each other.
Glass and plastic rods: Attract each other.
Wool and silk: Repel each other.
There are two kinds of electrification and we find that (i) like charges repel and (ii) unlike
charges attract each other. The property which differentiates the two kinds of charges is called
the polarity of charge
the charges acquired after rubbing are lost when the charged bodies are brought in contact.
unlike charges acquired by the objects neutralise or nullify each other’s effect. Therefore, the
charges were named as positive and negative by the American scientist Benjamin Franklin.
By convention, the charge on glass rod or cat’s fur is called positive and that on plastic rod or
silk is termed negative.
A simple apparatus to detect charge on a body is the gold-leaf electroscope. It consists of a
vertical metal rod housed in a box, with two thin gold leaves attached to its bottom end. When a
charged object touches the metal knob at the top of the rod, charge flows on to the leaves and
they diverge. The degree of divergance is an indicator of the amount of charge.
Matter is made up of atoms and molecules, which are normally electrically neutral, with
balanced positive and negative charges.
Forces like molecular bonding, solid structure, adhesive forces, and surface tension are
all due to electrical interactions between charged particles.
Electric force is pervasive in nature and affects various aspects of life, making it
essential to understand.
When we rub a glass rod with silk, some of the electrons from the rod are transferred to the silk
cloth. Thus the rod gets positively charged and the silk gets negatively charged. No new charge is
created in the process of rubbing. Also the number of electrons, that are transferred, is a very
small fraction of the total number of electrons in the material body.
Metals, human and animal bodies and earth are conductors. Most of the non-metals like glass,
porcelain, plastic, nylon, wood offer high resistance to the passage of electricity through them.
They are called insulators.
When some charge is transferred to a conductor, it readily gets distributed over the entire
surface of the conductor. In contrast, if some charge is put on an insulator, it stays at the same
place
a nylon or plastic comb gets electrified on combing dry hair or on rubbing, but a metal article
like spoon does not. The charges on metal leak through our body to the ground as both are
conductors of electricity. However, if a metal rod with a wooden or plastic handle is rubbed
without touching its metal part, it shows signs of charging.
If the sizes of charged bodies are very small as compared to the distances between them, we
treat them as point charges.
Charge has magnitude but no direction, similar to mass
Mass of a body is always positive whereas a charge can be either positive or negative.
The proton and electron thus created have equal and opposite charges and the total charge is
zero before and after the creation.
The quantisation of charge was first suggested by the experimental laws of electrolysis
discovered by English experimentalist Faraday. It was experimentally demonstrated by Millikan
in 1912
one coulomb is the charge flowing through a wire in 1 s if the current is 1 A (ampere)
there are about 6 × 1018 electrons in a charge of –1C
At the macroscopic level, charge quantization has no practical effect and can be ignored.
However, at the microscopic level, where charges are small and countable (on the order of tens
or hundreds of elementary charges, e), charge appears in discrete amounts, making quantization
significant. The key factor is the scale involved.
