1.03 Electric charge:
What is charge?
- Charge is a fundamental physical property. We cannot describe what it is, we can only describe how charged
particles behave.
- A particle that carries electrical charge is called a charged particle.
- Electrons and protons are charged particles.
- There are two types of charge, positive and negative.
- Electrons carry negative charge and protons carry positive charge.
- Opposite charges attract and like charges repel.
Measuring Charge.
The charge on an individual electron is too small, to be used as the base unit for measuring the quantity of charge. Therefore, electrical
charged is measured in units called Coulombs (C). One coulomb is equal to the total charge, carried by 6.25 x 1018
electrons. (6.25 billion, billion electrons!)
- An electron has 1.6 x 10-19 Coulombs of negative charge.
- A proton has 1.6 x 10-19 Coulombs of positive charge.
