By the end of this unit, a successful student will be able to:
- MSTE Phys 5.1: Recognize that an electric charge tends to be static on insulators and can move on and in conductors, and explain that energy can produce a separation of charges
- - MSTE Phys 5.4: Describe conceptually the attractive or repulsive forces between objects relative to their charges and the distance between them (Coulomb’s law).
- Use mathematical representations of Coulomb’s Law to describe and predict the electrostatic forces between objects (NGSS HS-PS2-4)
- Apply Coulomb’s law to problem solving situations
- Explain the difference in concept between electric forces and electric fields
- Develop a qualitative and quantitative understanding of electrical potential difference (voltage) and its relationship to the electric field and potential energy
- Create a computational model to calculate the change in the energy of one component in a system when the change in energy of the other component(s) and energy flows in and out of the system are known. (NGSS HS-PS3-1)
- Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as either motions of particles or energy stored in fields. (NGSS HS-PS3-2)
- Develop and use a model of two objects interacting through electric or magnetic fields to illustrate the forces between objects and the changes in energy of the objects due to the interaction. (NGSS HS-PS3-5)
All assignments are due on the date listed. That is not the date they are assigned.
Due Date Day Assignment
5/27 Fri Read: 32
Do: 2 – 24 (even)
5/30 Mon No School – Memorial Day
5/31 Tue Do p. 516: 26 – 36
6/1 Wed Read: 33
Do pp. 529-530: 1, 2,3,5,8,9,10,12,14,17,19
6/2 Thu Do p 530: 22-31
6/2 Thu Finish Lab: Electrostatics
6/3 Fri Test 32, 33
Links - Physics Preliminaries
Missed a class? Forgot what we did last week? Follow the link to Physics Unit 9 Daily Plans
- Textbook links
- Links
- Electricity and magnetism had known of to one degree or another since ancient times. The Greeks recorded that the rubbing of amber with wool caused that wool to be attracted to the amber as far back as 600 BCE.
- Prentice Hall's web page on Giancoli Chapter 16 Electric Charge and Electric Field.
- Haliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 22 - Electric Charge (Calculus based)
- Haliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 23 - Electric Fields (Calculus based)
- Prentice Hall's web page on Giancoli Chapter 17 Electric Potential and Electric Energy; Capacitance
- Haliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 25 - Electric Potential (Calculus based)
- Haliday, Resnick and Walker's page on Chapter 26 - Capacitance (Calculus based)
- William Gilbert (1544-1603), physician to Queen Elizabeth published one of the earliest scientific studies on magnetism De Magnete. He also studied and classified a number of materials that were capable of holding electrostatic charges when rubbed - testing more than the traditional amber and jet. This page is a brief biography from the Galileo Project.
- Otto von Guericke is most famous for demonstrating the forces resulting from atmospheric pressure by creating a partial vacuum within the Magdeburg sphere and failing to uncouple the hemispheres, even with teams of horses, before air was returned to the interior of the sphere. He's also credited with developing what may be the first electrostatic generator in 1672, which operated by spining a ball of sulfer against a pad.
- Charles Du Fay (1698-1739) is credited with being the first to classify electrical charge into two fluids: the resinous (which resulted from rubbing substances like amber) and the vitreous (which resulted from rubbing substances like glass) and noting that like fluids repeled, while opposing fluids attracted.
- Pieter van Musschenbroek at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands invented a way to store electrical charge in 1745 in a device which became known as the Leyden Jar. These devices were the first capacitors, and an array of them, just like an array of artilery, became known as a battery.
- The Bizarre Leyden Jar page explains how to construct your own Leyden jar. As does this Leyden jar page.
- Twyla Kitts's Leyden Jar page descibes an elementary and middle school level lab for making the devices with pie plates.
- In the 1780's Charles Augustin de Coulomb performed experiments with the torsion pendulum which enabled him to calculate the strength of the electrostatic force. Coulomb's experimental design was copied by Henry Cavendish for his "weighing of the Earth" experiment, which determined the size of the gravitational constant "G" from Newton's law of universal gravitation. This page was written by J.J. O'Connor & E F Robinson.
- Another page on Coulomb can be found here.
- Between 1799 and 1800, Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827)invented the voltaic pile, essentially a series of capacitors, which was the forerunner of the modern electric battery. Another article on Volta can be found at The Catholic Encyclopedia, with yet another at The Idea Factory