Key Terms

capacitor

arrangement of objects that can store electrical energy by virtue of their geometry

conductor

material through which electric charge can easily move, such as metals

Coulomb’s law

describes the electrostatic force between charged objects, which is proportional to the charge on each object and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects

dielectric

electrically insulating material that becomes polarized in an electric field

electric field

defines the force per unit charge at all locations in space around a charge distribution

electric potential

the electric potential energy per unit charge

electric potential energy

the work that a charge can do by virtue of its position in an electric field

electron

subatomic particle that carries one indivisible unit of negative electric charge

induction

creating an unbalanced charge distribution in an object by moving a charged object toward it (but without touching)

insulator

material through which a charge does not move, such as rubber

inverse-square law

law that has the form of a ratio, with the denominator being the distance squared

law of conservation of charge

states that total charge is constant in any process

polarization

separation of charge induced by nearby excess charge

proton

subatomic particle that carries the same magnitude charge as the electron, but its charge is positive

test charge

positive electric charge whose with a charge magnitude so small that it does not significantly perturb any nearby charge distribution