1. Electric Charges

2. Have you ever walked across a carpet in stocking feet and reached for the doorknob only to be “zapped” by an unexpected shock? Why does your hair mysteriously stand on end after you pull off a wool hat on a winter day? These event are actually caused by the same thing!

3. Shocking, Isn’t It?
To explain why you get a shock by touching a doorknob after walking across the carpet, we need to become familiar with static electricity
Particularly:
Electric Charges
Law of Attraction & Repulsion
How objects become charged
Insulators & Conductors

4. Charges
Recall, the atom….
Eureka

5. What Is A “Charge”? All objects are made of atoms
Atoms contain protons, neutrons and electrons
An atom must keep their protons and neutrons “trapped” inside their nucleus.
Electrons are “free” to move around.

6. What Is A “Charge”?
When an object contains an unequal number of protons and electrons it is said to be charged
Negatively charged means there are more electrons than protons
Positively charged means there are more protons than electrons

7. When an object contains an equal number of protons and electrons it is said to be neutral
Neutral objects do not carry a charge
Benjamin Franklin named charges “positive” and “negative” about 100 years before the electron was discovered

8. Law of Attraction & Repulsion
Scientists found that a charged object will either attract or repel another charged object
Two objects with the same charge will repel each other
Two objects with opposite charges will attract each other
This is summarised in the “Law of Attraction and Repulsion”
Like charges repel, unlike charges attract

10. This force of attraction or repulsion is known as electric force.
Object that exert an electric force are said to have an electric charge.

11. A neutral object has an equal number of protons and elections.
An object that has more electrons than protons is negatively charged.
An object that has fewer electrons that protons is positively charged.
PLAY: Electric Field Hockey