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Electric charges - (Concept)

Electric Charges

  • Electric charge is one of the fundamental properties like mass; length etc. associated with elementary particles for example proton, electron and many more.

  • Electric charge is the property responsible for electric forces which act between the nucleus and electron to bind the atom together.

  • Charges are of two kinds

    1. negative charge

    2. positive charge

  • Electrons are negatively charged particles and protons, of which nucleus is made of, are positively charged particles. Actually nucleus is made of protons and neutrons but neutrons are uncharged particles.

  • The electric force between two protons is same as electric force between two electrons kept at same distance apart i.e., both set repel each other but electric force between a proton and electron placed at same distance apart is not repulsive but attractive in nature

  • All the free charges are integral multiples of a unit of charge ‘e’,

Where the value of  ‘e’ = -1.602 × 10 -19 C i. e., charge on an electron or proton.

  • Thus charge q on any body is always expressed as -
                                              q = ne
    where n = any integer, it may be positive or negative

Conductors and insulators

  • There are some categories of materials in which electric charges can flow easily while in some categories of materials, charges cannot flow easily.

  • Those materials through which electric charges can flow easily are called conductors. All metals like copper, aluminum etc. are good conductors of electricity.

  • Materials through which electric charges cannot flow are called insulators.

  • Some examples of insulating materials are glass, rubber, mica, plastic, dry wood etc.

  • Presence or absence of free electrons in a material makes it a conductor or insulator.

  • Conductors have free electrons which are loosely held by nuclei of their atoms whereas insulators do not have free electrons as in insulators electrons are strongly held by nuclei of their atoms.

Exam Chapter
JEE FOUNDATION Electricity
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