The successful student will be able to:
- Understand the concept of electric charge so they can
- Describe the types of charge and the attraction and repulsion of charges (APCIIIA1a1) (Knight 25.1, 25.2)
- Describe polarization and induced charges (APCIIIA1a2) (Knight 25.3)
- Students should understand induced charge and electrostatic shielding, so they can:
- Describe the process of charging by induction. (APCIIIB1c1) (Knight 25.3)
- Explain why a neutral conductor is attracted to a charged object. (APCIIIB1c2) (Knight 25.3)
- Understand Coulomb’s Law and the principle of superposition so they can:
- Calculate the magnitude and direction of the force on a positive or negative charge due to other specified point charges. (APCIIIA1b1) (Knight 25.4)
- Analyze the motion of a particle of specified charge and mass under the influence of an electrostatic force (APCIIIA1b2) (Knight 25.4)
- Understand the concept of electric field so they can:
- Define it in terms of the force on a test charge (APCIIIA2a1) (Knight 25.5)
- Describe and calculate the electric field of a single point charge (APCIIIA2a2) (Knight 25.5)
- Calculate the magnitude and direction of the electric field produced by two or more point charges (APCIIIA2a3) (Knight 25.5, 26.2)
- Calculate the magnitude and direction of the force on a positive or negative charge placed in a specified field. (APCIIIA2a4) (Knight 25.5, 26.1, 26.3, 26.4)
- Interpret an electric field diagram (APCIIIA2a5) (Knight 26.1, 26.2)
- Analyze the motion of a particle of specified charge and mass in a uniform electric field (APCIIIA2a6) (Knight 26.6)
- Understand the physics of the parallel-plate capacitor, so they can:
- Describe the electric field inside the capacitor (IIIB2b1) (Knight 26.5)
- Relate the electric field to the density of the charge on the plates. (IIIB2b2) (Knight 26.5)
All assignments are due on the date listed. That is not the date they are assigned.
Due date Day Assignment
2/7 Tue: Read/Scan/Use: Knight. Chapter 25
Do: PS 5: Chapter 25:17, 28, 33, 39, 56, 57, 65, 67, 74, 76
2/14 Tue Do: Lab 2: Electric forces: Electroscopes, Balloons, and Pithballs
2/15 Wed Read/Scan/Use: Knight Chapter 26
Do: PS 6: Chapter 26: 14, 15, 29, 36, 40, 41, 44, 45, 66, 67
2/16 Thu Test Chapter 25, 26
2/18 – 2/26 February Vacation
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.
- MIT's OpenCourseware presents Walter Lewin's videos for 8.02, the freshman electricity and magnetism class. MIT's equivalent of AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism.
- Richard Feynmann's Feynman Lectures on Physics are transcripts from his freshman physics courses taught in the early 1960's. They're great for cementing the core concepts. Volume II is from the primarily Electricity and Magnetism course.
- Chapter 1: Electromagnetism Includes:
- 1-1 Electrical forces
- 1-2 Electric and magnetic fields
- 1-3 Characteristics of vector fields
- 1-4 The laws of electromagnetism
- 1-5 What are the fields?
- 1-6 Electromagnetism in science and technology
- Chapter 2: Differential Calculus of Vector Fields
- Chapter 3: Vector Integral Calculus Chapters 2 and 3 introduce multivariable vector calculus ideas which are used in the later chapters, though the broad concepts can be understood without these skills.
- Chapter 4: Electrostatics including:
- 4-1 Statics
- 4-2 Coulomb's law; superposition
- 4-3 Electric Potential (topic for next unit)
- 4-4 E = -grad phi (topic for next unit)
- 4-5 The flux of E (topic for next unit)
- 4-6 Gauss' law; the divergence of E (topic for next unit)
- 4-7 Field of a sphere of charge (approached as will be next unit)
- 4-8 Field lines(this unit); equipotential surfaces (next unit)
- Prentice Hall's web page on Giancoli Chapter 16 Electric Charge and Electric Field.
- (no-calculus)
- Pearson Addison Wesley's page for Knight Chapter 25: Electric charges and Forces (Calculus based)
- Pearson Addison Wesley's page for Knight Chapter 26: The 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)
- 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.
- 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.
- A Video on Static Electricity and Bubbles from the Jefferson Lab
- PSSC film on Coulomb's Law by Prof. Eric Rogers of Princeton (1959)
- Wolfgang Christian's Physlets are Java applets illustrating various physics ideas. This one is on Retarded Electric Fields