Electrostatics
Whether it is the static electricity that comes off your clothes out of the dryer, to the giant displays of lightning in thunderstorms, people have been fascinated by electrical charge for millennia.
It was the Greeks who noted the idea of static when they rubbed amber on their clothes, to produce the characteristic effects of attraction and repulsion. The Greek word for amber is ελεψτρον (electron)
But what is charge? It was only in the last 300 years also that we developed a better understanding of electrical charge. Nonetheless, even today, we know materials can possess charge, but at best we are simply describing how it behaves, not what causes electrical charge at the fundamental level.
We will start in the series of lessons about what charge is and how we describe it and explain its behaviour. In subsequent lessons we will look at systems where the charge is moving consistently such as in electrical circuits. Then later we will look at how electrical charges behaves in various fields such as electric fields and magnetic fields.
It was the Greeks who noted the idea of static when they rubbed amber on their clothes, to produce the characteristic effects of attraction and repulsion. The Greek word for amber is ελεψτρον (electron)
But what is charge? It was only in the last 300 years also that we developed a better understanding of electrical charge. Nonetheless, even today, we know materials can possess charge, but at best we are simply describing how it behaves, not what causes electrical charge at the fundamental level.
We will start in the series of lessons about what charge is and how we describe it and explain its behaviour. In subsequent lessons we will look at systems where the charge is moving consistently such as in electrical circuits. Then later we will look at how electrical charges behaves in various fields such as electric fields and magnetic fields.