Electric Charge and Fields – Notes

Electric charge
Electric charge is the property of matter that exhibits its electrostatic interaction with other matter.
The study of electric charges at rest and the physical quantities associated with electric charges at rest is called Electrostatic or Static electricity.
Unlike charges attract and like charges repel each other.
A body can be charged by rubbing one material against or by simple bringing a charged body in contact with another uncharged or neutral body.
The material, which loses electrons or has a deficit of electrons, becomes positively charged.
The material, which gains electrons or has excess electrons, becomes negatively charged.
A gold leaf electroscope is used to determine whether a body is charged or uncharged.

Properties of electric charge:
Charge is a scalar quantity.
Total charge in an isolated system is always conserved.
Quantization of charge: charge on an object is always an integral multiple of the basic unit of charge, i.e., (Q=ne).
Conductors are materials that readily allow the flow of electric current through them.