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Electrostatics
Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Electric Force | attractive or repulsive field force between opposite or the same charged objects; in units of Newtons (N) |
| Charges | either positive or negative in nature; in units of Coulombs (C) |
| Gravitational Force | attractive field force between objects with mass; in units of Newtons (N) |
| Mass | total matter within an object; in units of kilograms (kg) |
| Electron | elementary particle of an atom with a negative electric charge |
| Proton | elementary particle of an atom with a positive electric charge |
| Neutron | elementary particle of an atom with no electric charge |
| Particle | a body with mass, but having negligible size |
| Atom | building block of all matter with a nucleus of protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons |
| Coulomb’s Law | charged objects either attract or repel with a force determined by their charges and the distance between them squared |
| Universal Law of Gravitation | Newton’s Law that all objects attract each other with a force determined by their masses and the distance between them squared |
| Law of Conservation of Charge | amount of charge that one object loses is equal to the amount the other gains when transferred |
| Conductor | material that allows electrons to move freely |
| Insulator | material that restricts the movement of electrons |
| Conduction | charge transfer between one charged object and one neutral object by contact alone, resulting in both having the same charge |
| Friction | charge transfer between two neutral objects by rubbing, which results in one being positive and the other negative |
| Induction | charging of a neutral object that is near a charged object only after its charges separate (polarize) |
| Electric Potential Energy | stored energy needed to move a charge |
| Electroscope | instrument that detects the presence of a nearby charge via induction (polarization) and repulsion |
| Van de Graaff Generator | machine that accumulates electrostatic charge via friction, creating very high electric potentials |
| Neutral | overall charge of an object that has an equal amount of protons and electrons |
| Grounding | allows excess charges to dissipate (escape) |
| Direct | relationship when one variable changes in the same way that another one does, such as electric force and charge |
| Inverse Squared | relationship when one variable changes in the opposite way of another, such as force and distance |
| Magnitude | size or amount (number) |