Fundamentals Physics

Twelfth Edition
Halliday

Chapter 21
Coulomb’s Law

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Section 21.1 Coulomb’s Law

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2

Coulomb’s Law Learning Objectives
#1 - #5
1. Distinguish between being electrically neutral, negatively
charged, and positively charged and identify excess charge.
2. Distinguish between conductors, nonconductors (insulators),
semiconductors, and superconductors.
3. Describe the electrical properties of the particles inside an atom.
4. Identify conduction electrons and explain their role in making a
conducting object negatively or positively charged.
5. Identify what is meant by “electrically isolated” and by
“grounding.”

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 3

Coulomb’s Law Learning Objectives
#6 - #8
6. Explain how a charged object can set up induced charge in a
second object.
7. Identify that charges with the same electrical sign repel each
other and those with opposite electrical signs attract each other.
8. For either of the particles in a pair of charged particles, draw a
free-body diagram, showing the electrostatic force (Coulomb
force) on it and anchoring the tail of the force vector on that
particle.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 4

Coulomb’s Law Learning Objectives
#9 - #12
9. For either of the particles in a pair of charged particles, apply
Coulomb’s law to relate the magnitude of the electrostatic force,
the charge magnitudes of the particles, and the separation
between the particles.
10. Identify that Coulomb’s law applies only to (point-like)
particles and objects that can be treated as particles.
11. If more than one force acts on a particle, find the net force by
adding all the forces as vectors, not scalars.
12. Identify that a shell of uniform charge attracts or repels a
charged particle that is outside the shell as if all the shell’s
charge were concentrated as a particle at the shell’s center.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 5

Coulomb’s Law Learning Objectives
#13 - #16
13. Identify that if a charged particle is located inside a shell of
uniform charge, there is no net electrostatic force on the particle
from the shell.
14. Identify that if excess charge is put on a spherical conductor, it
spreads out uniformly over the external surface area.
15. Identify that if two identical spherical conductors touch or are
connected by conducting wire, any excess charge will be shared
equally.
16. Identify that a non-conducting object can have any given
distribution of charge, including charge at interior points.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 6

Coulomb’s Law Learning Objectives
#17 - #18
17. Identify current as the rate at which charge moves through a
point.
18. For current through a point, apply the relationship between the
current, a time interval, and the amount of charge that moves
through the point in that time interval.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7

Attractive-Repulsive Magical Force?
The two glass rods were each The plastic rod was rubbed
rubbed with a silk cloth and one with fur. When brought close
was suspended by thread. When to the glass rod, the rods
they are close to each other, they attract each other.
repel each other.

Figure Figure
21.1.1 (a) 21.1.1 (b)

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 8

Electric Charge: Effect of Charge
Sign
Two charged rods of Two charged rods of opposite
the same sign repel signs attract each other. Plus
each other. signs indicate a positive net
charge, and minus signs
indicate a negative net charge.

Figure Figure
21.1.2 (a) 21.1.2 (b)

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 9

Electrostatic Attraction-Repulsion
Summary
Particles with the same sign of electrical charge repel
each other, and particles with opposite signs attract each
other.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10

Material Classification by Charge
Mobility
Materials classified based on their ability to move charge
• Conductors are materials in which a significant number of
electrons are free to move. Examples include metals.
• The charged particles in nonconductors (insulators) are not
free to move. Examples include rubber, plastic, glass.
• Semiconductors are materials that are intermediate between
conductors and insulators; examples include silicon and
germanium in computer chips.
• Superconductors are materials that are perfect conductors,
allowing charge to move without any hindrance.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 11

Charge and Charge Distribution in
Atoms
• Charged Particles. The properties of conductors and insulators
are due to the structure and electrical nature of atoms. Atoms
consist of positively charged protons, negatively charged
electrons, and electrically neutral neutrons. The protons and
neutrons are packed tightly together in a central nucleus and do
not move.
• When atoms of a conductor like copper come together to form
the solid, some of their outermost—and so most loosely held—
electrons become free to wander about within the solid, leaving
behind positively charged atoms (positive ions). We call the
mobile electrons conduction electrons. There are few (if any)
free electrons in a nonconductor.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 12

Concept of Induced Charge
Induced Charge. A neutral copper rod
is electrically isolated from its
surroundings by being suspended on a
non-conducting thread. Either end of the
copper rod will be attracted by a charged
rod. Here, conduction electrons in the
copper rod are repelled to the far end of
that rod by the negative charge on the
plastic rod. Then that negative charge
attracts the remaining positive charge on
the near end of the copper rod, rotating Figure 21.1.3
the copper rod to bring that near end
closer to the plastic rod.
Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 13
Coulomb’s Law: Definition
Coulomb’s law describes the electrostatic force (or electric force)
between two charged particles. If the particles have charges q1 and
q2, are separated by distance r, and are at rest (or moving only
slowly) relative to each other, then the magnitude of the force acting
on each due to the other is given by

1 q1 q2
F  Coulomb's law  , Equation 21.1.4
4 0 r 2

where  0  8.85 1012 C2 /N 2  m 2 is the permittivity constant. The ratio

1
often replaced with the electrostatic constant (or Coulomb
4 0

constant) k  8.99  109 N  m 2 /C2 . Thus k  41 0 .

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 14

Electrostatic Force Vector

Figure 21.1.6

The electrostatic force on particle 1 can be described in terms of a

unit vector r along an axis through the two particles, radially away
from particle 2.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 15

Characteristics of Electrostatic Forces
• The electrostatic force vector acting
on a charged particle due to a second
charged particle is either directly
toward the second particle (opposite
signs of charge) or directly away
from it (same sign of charge).
• If multiple electrostatic forces act on
a particle, the net force is the vector
sum (not scalar sum) of the
individual forces.
Two charged particles repel each other if they have the same sign
of charge, either (a) both positive or (b) both negative. (c) They
attract each other if they have opposite signs of charge.
Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 16
Electrostatic Force Superposition and
Shell Theories
Multiple Forces: If multiple electrostatic forces act on a particle,
the net force is the vector sum (not scalar sum) of the individual
forces.
     
F1,net  F12  F13  F14  F15    F1n , Equation 21.1.7

Shell Theories: There are two shell theories for electrostatic force
• Shell theory 1. A charged particle outside a shell with charge
uniformly distributed on its surface is attracted or repelled as if the
shell’s charge were concentrated as a particle at its center.
• Shell theory 2. A charged particle inside a shell with charge
uniformly distributed on its surface has no net force acting on it due
to the shell.
Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 17
Coulomb’s Law Checkpoint #2
The figure shows two protons (symbol p) and one electron (symbol
e) on an axis. On the central proton, what is the direction of (a) the
force due to the electron, (b) the force due to the other proton, and
(c) the net force? Remember that protons are positive charges and
electrons are negative charges.

Answer:
(a) left towards the electron
(b) left away from the other proton
(c) left
Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 18
Section 21.2 Quantized Charge

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 19

Quantized Charge Learning
Objectives
• Identify the elementary charge.
• Identify that the charge of a particle or object must be
a positive or negative integer times the elementary
charge.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 20

Electrical Charge per Particle

• Electric charge is quantized (restricted to certain values).

• The charge of a particle can be written as ne, where n is a
positive or negative integer and e is the elementary charge.
Any positive or negative charge q that can be detected can
be written as
q  ne, n  1,  2,  3,, Equation 21.2.1

in which e, the elementary charge, has the approximate value

e  1.602  1019 C. Equation 21.2.2

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 21

Examples of Quantized Charge
When a physical quantity such as charge can have only
discrete values rather than any value, we say that the
quantity is quantized. It is possible, for example, to find a
particle that has no charge at all or a charge of +10e or
−6e, but not a particle with a charge of, say, 3.57e.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 22

Charge for Three Subatomic Particles

Table 21.2.1 The Charges of Three Particles

Particle Symbol Charge

Electron e or e− −e

Proton p +e

Neutron n 0

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 23

Quantized Charge: Checkpoint #4

Initially, sphere A has a charge of −50e and sphere B has a

charge of +20e.The spheres are made of conducting
material and are identical in size. If the spheres then
touch, what is the resulting charge on sphere A?

Answer: −15e

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 24

Section 21.3 Charge Conservation

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 25

Charge is Conservation Learning
Objectives
• Identify that in any isolated physical process, the net
charge cannot change (the net charge is always conserved).
• Identify an annihilation process of particles and a pair
production of particles.
• Identify mass number and atomic number in terms of the
number of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 26

Net Charge Before vs. After Particle
Interactions
The net electric charge of any isolated system is always
conserved.
If two charged particles undergo an annihilation process, they
have equal and opposite signs of charge.

e e  
 
Equation 21.3.3

If two charged particles appear as a result of a pair production

process, they have equal and opposite signs of charge.

  e  e Equation 21.3.4

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 27

Experimental Evidence of Particle
Charge Conservation
A photograph of trails of bubbles left in a
bubble chamber by an electron and a
positron. The pair of particles was
produced by a gamma ray that entered the
chamber directly from the bottom. Being
electrically neutral, the gamma ray did not
generate a telltale trail of bubbles along its
path, as the electron and positron did.

Figure 21.3.1

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 28

Chapter 21 Summary: Electrical Charge
Conservation and Material Properties
Electric Charge
• The strength of a particle’s electrical interaction with objects
around it depends on its electric charge, which can be either
positive or negative.
Conductors and Insulators
• Conductors are materials in which a significant number of
electrons are free to move. The charged particles in
nonconductors (insulators) are not free to move.
Conservation of Charge
• The net electric charge of any isolated system is always
conserved.

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 29

Chapter 21 Summary: Coulomb’s
Law and Charge Quantization
Coulomb’s Law
• The magnitude of the electrical force between two charged
particles is proportional to the product of their charges and
inversely proportional to the square of their separation distance.
q1 q2
1
F Equation 21.1.4
4 0 r 2

The Elementary Charge

• Electric charge is quantized (restricted to certain values).
• e is the elementary charge
e  1.602  1019 C. Equation 21.2.2

Copyright ©2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 30