Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026

grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

1.1 Electric charge: -

Evidence of charge:

- You might have rubbed your shoes

on a carpet and then produced
a spark when you touched someone
or (a metal knob of a door).

- When you Blow a balloon and Rub

the balloon with your hair, then
Bring the balloon near to your hair
your hair attracts to the balloon.

- In 1750, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite

with a key attached to the string.
As a thunderstorm approached,
the loose threads of the kite string
began to stand up and repel one
another, and when Franklin brought

his knuckle close to the key,

he experienced a spark.
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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Electric effects produced in this way are called static electricity.

Electrostatics: the study of electric charges that can be collected and

held in one place.

Through several investigations, many you can do on your own, it has

been determined that there are only two types of charge. Benjamin
Franklin called them positive and negative charges.

The two kinds of charges do not appear alone but in pairs. Matter
normally contains both types of charges, positive and negative. Rubbing
materials together separates the two types of charge.

A Microscopic View of Charge:-

the atom has a massive, positively charged

nucleus surrounded by a cloud of orbiting

electrons. scientists know that atoms

are normally neutral. For a neutral object,

the amount of negative charge (electrons)

exactly balances the amount of positive charge (protons).

An atom missing electron has an overall positive charge, and

consequently, any matter made of these electron-deficient atoms is
positively charged.

Electrons attached to other atoms, resulting in atoms with net negative

charge, from a microscopic viewpoint, acquiring charge is a process of
transferring electrons.

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

A Microscopic View of Charge

If two neutral objects are rubbed together, each can become charged
For instance, when rubber shoes on a wool rug, the energy from the
rubbing removes outer electrons from atoms in the wool, and they
transfer to the rubber shoes, as shown in the figure.

The extra electrons on the rubber result in a net negative charge. The
electrons missing from the wool result in a net positive charge. The
combined total charge of the two objects remains the same. Charge is
conserved, which is one way of saying that individual charges never are
created or destroyed (conservative law of charge)

Like electric charges repel, and unlike electric charges attract

Like charges You can investigate electric charge

using strips of transparent tape. Fold over about 5 mm
of the end of a 10-cm strip of tape to use as a handle.
Stick the tape strip to a dry, smooth surface, such as a
desk, as shown in the the Figure. Attach a second,
similar piece of tape next to the first. Quickly
pull both strips off the table and bring them near each
other. What happens?...............................................................

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Unlike charges Now, stick one strip of tape on the

desk and place the second strip on top of the first. Use
the handle of the bottom strip to slowly pull both
strips off the table together. Rub them with the fingers
of your other hand until they are no longer attracted to
you. By doing this, you discharge the strips. In other
words, you remove their charge. Now, with one hand

holding the handle of one strip and the other hand

holding the handle of the second strip, quickly pull the two strips
apart. You will find that, again, the strips are charged—they are
attracted to your hands. Bring them close to each other. Do they still
repel each other? No, the strips are now attracted to each other, as
shown in the Figure. Because the strips attract each other, you know
that they do not have the same charge; like charges repel. This
suggests that there is a second type of charge and that unlike charges
attract.

q) What will happen if you rub two identical plastic rulers with a woolen
cloth and bring them together?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Interactions between charged objects :

Can you use your tape to explore the

charge of other objects? Rub a plastic

comb on your clothing, and place the

comb on a table. Then, prepare your

strips of tape as you did before: stick

one strip to the table and stick the

second strip on top of the first. Label the handle end of the bottom
strip B and the handle end of the top strip T. Pull the pair off
together. Discharge them, and then pull them apart. Now, holding your
two strips of tape by the sticky ends, one in each hand, bring first one
and then the other close to the comb, as shown in Figure 3. You will
find that one strip will be attracted to the comb, and the other will be
repelled by it.

Conductors and Insulators

Insulator: A material through which a charge will not move .

the electrons that transferred to the plastic object stayed where

they were; they did not move.

Conductor: A material that allows charges to move about easily.

the charge spreads very quickly over the entire conductor

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Metals :

most metals are good conductors. This is because at least one electron
of each atom of a metal can be removed easily. These electrons no
longer remain with any particular atom, but move through the metal as
a whole. Copper and aluminum are both excellent conductors and are
used commercially to carry electric charge.

Some nonmetal materials also are good conductors. These include

plasma, which consists of negative electrons and positive ions, and
graphite.

Air as a conductor You read that air is an insulator. Under certain

conditions, charges can move through air as if it were a conductor. The
spark that jumps between your finger and a doorknob after you have
rubbed your feet on a carpet discharges you. In other words, you have
become neutral because the excess charges have left you Similarly,
lightning discharges a thundercloud. In both of these cases, air
becomes a conductor for a brief moment.

Questions:

1- A pith ball is a small sphere made of a light material, such as

plastic foam, that is often coated with a layer of graphite or
aluminum paint. How could you determine whether a pith ball
suspended from an insulating thread is neutral, charged
positively, or charged negatively?

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

2- Suppose you hang a long metal rod from silk threads so that the
rod is electrically isolated. You then touch a charged glass rod to
one end of the metal rod. Describe the charges on the metal rod

3- You can charge a rubber rod negatively by rubbing it with wool.

What happens when you rub a copper rod with wool?

4- You can give a rubber rod a negative charge by rubbing the rod
with wool. What happens to the charge of the wool? Why?

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

1.2 Electric force : -

- Electric forces must be strong because they can easily produce
accelerations larger than the acceleration caused by gravity.
- You also have learned that electric forces can be either repulsive
or attractive, while gravitational forces always are attractive.

Forces on Charged Objects:

Electroscope:

An electroscope consists of
a metal knob connected by
a metal stem to two thin,
lightweight pieces of metal
foil, called leaves.

Note that the leaves hang loosely and are enclosed to eliminate stray
air currents. (usually use glass) .

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Charging by conduction :

Charging by conduction involves the contact

of a charged object to a neutral object, then

the neutral object will gain charge too.

When you touch a negatively charged rod to

the knob of an electroscope, electrons are

transferred to the knob and spread over all the

metal surfaces. As shown in the Figure ,the two leaves become

negatively charged and repel each other, so they move apart.

Separation of charge on neutral objects: In your investigations with

tape, you found that when you held charged tape, the tape was
attracted to your fingers. The tape was attracted to your fingers
whether the tape was positively charged or negatively charged. Your
fingers, however, remained neutral; they had equal amounts of
positive and negative charge. Why were the tape strips attracted to
them? The tape was attracted to your fingers because the charges
in your fingers had separated.

Lightning :The negative charges at the bottoms of thunderclouds

can cause the separation of charges on Earth. Negative charges in
the ground below a cloud are repelled from Earth’s surface. The
forces between the charges in the cloud and those on Earth’s
surface can break molecules in the air into positively and negatively
charged particles. These charged particles are free to move, and
they establish a conducting path from the ground to the cloud.

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Charging by induction: Suppose that two identical insulated metal

spheres are touching, as in the figure below. You can see they have
equal charge. If you bring a negatively charged rod close to one sphere,
as in the middle image of the Figure, electrons will move from this
sphere onto the sphere farther from the rod. This will negatively
charge the farther sphere and positively charge the closer sphere. If
you separate the spheres while the rod is nearby, each sphere will have
a charge, and the charges will be equal but opposite, as shown in the
far-right of Figure 10. This process of charging a neutral object by
bringing a charged object near it is called charging by induction.

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Grounding; - which is the process of removing excess charge by

connecting an object to Earth. Because Earth is very large, it ca absorb
great amounts of charge without becoming noticeably charged itself.
When you ground a charged object, almost any amount of charge can
flow to Earth.

q) show in figures how u can use a negatively charged rod ,to charge an
electroscope by a permeant positive charge .

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Charging by rubbing or friction:

When insulating materials rub against each other, they may become
electrically charged. Electrons, which are negatively charged, may be
‘rubbed off’ one material and on to the other. The material that gains
electrons becomes negatively charged. The material that loses
electrons is left with a positive charge. Both materials are equal charge
but opposite type so the net charge is zero, conservation law of charge.

- If tow material rub together

The above material in the chain gain a
Positive charge and the other gain
a negative charge .

q) mention electroscope uses :

1-………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2-………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3-…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Charging by polarization (charge separation):

Rearrangement of the intramolecular charges on the surface of the

insulating material by the effect of the charge of the influent object.

If a charged plastic tube is held near to neutral

paper bits, the attraction between the paper and

the plastic would be sufficient to raise the paper

off the table. If a rubber balloon is charged by

rubbing it with animal fur, the balloon can subsequently be stuck to

the surface of a wooden cabinet or a whiteboard. Quite surprisingly,
this interaction between a neutral object and any charged object can
be explained using our usual rules of opposites attract and likes repel.

NOTE :

An object may have charge of ±1e, ±2e, ±3e

e = 1.60219x10-19C ,where e is the elementary charge ,which equal the

charge of one electron .

q=∓𝑛𝑒, where n: integer number represent No. of electrons.

THIS CALLED QUANTIZED LAW OF CHARGE

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Coulomb’s Law: -

Where :

- qA ,, qB :the two charges in coulombs ( C )

note: 𝜇𝐶 = 10−6 𝐶 , 𝑛𝐶 = 10−9 𝐶

- K: Columbus constant and it is equal

K=9X109N.m2/c2,in Air or vacuum .

- r: the distance between the tow charges

or the distance between the center of the two

spherical objects in (m) .

- Fe: electric force in newtons ( N )

Coulomb used an apparatus similar to this one to measure the

electrostatic force between two charged

spheres. He observed differences in

the amount of deflection of the

spheres while varying the distance

between them.

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Notes:

- The electric forces are two types ,It is attractive if the charges
are of the opposite sign, and repulsive if the charges have the
same sign.
- The first force 𝐹⃗𝐴𝐵 equal and opposite the second force 𝐹⃗𝐵𝐴
𝐹⃗𝐴𝐵 = −𝐹⃗𝐵𝐴
- It is proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the
charges, |qA| and |qB|, of the two charges .
- It is directing along a line joining the two charges and is inversely
proportional to the square of the separation distance r, between
them.

q) By which factor does the electrostatic force between two

charges change in following cases?
A-if the distance is doubled

B- if the distance is halved

C-if one charge doubled

D- if the two charges doubled and the distance doubled too.

C-the distance increasing four times

D- the distance increase by three times

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Applications of Electrostatic Forces

There are many commercial and industrial applications that take

advantage of electrostatic forces. For example:

- tiny paint droplets can be charged by induction. When sprayed on

automobiles and other objects, the droplets repel each other and
paint spreads uniformly.
- Photocopy machines take advantage of static electricity to place
black toner on a page so that a precise reproduction of the
original document is achieved.
- Laser printers use static electricity in a similar way. Toner
particles are attracted to charged characters on a drum.
- Electrostatic forces also are used to collect emissions in
smokestacks. Emissions are charged when they are released from
combustion processes. They are then attracted to collectors that
have been given an opposite charge.

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

q) Sphere A, with a charge of +6.0 μC,is located near another charged

sphere, B. Sphere B has a charge of −3.0 μC and is located 4.0 cm to
the right of A.

a. What is the force of sphere B on sphere A?

b. A third sphere, C, with a +1.5 μC charge, is added. If it is located 3.0

cm directly beneath A, what is the new net force on sphere A?

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

9) A negative charge of -2.0×10-4 C and a positive charge of 8.0×10-4 C

are separated by 0.30 m. What is the force between the two charges?

10) A negative charge of -6.0×10-6 C exerts an attractive force of 65 N

on a second charge that is 0.050 m away. What is the magnitude of the
second charge?

12. Describe how the electrostatic force between two charges changes
when the distance between those two charges is tripled.

13. Sphere A is located at the origin and has a charge of +2.0×10-6 C.

Sphere B is located at +0.60 m on the x-axis and has a charge of
−3.6×10-6 C. Sphere C is located at +0.80 m on the x-axis and has a
charge of +4.0×10-6 C. Determine the net force on sphere A.

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

MORE EXCERSISES:

18- Charging by Induction In an electroscope being charged by

induction, what happens when the charging rod is moved away before
the ground is removed from the knob?

20-What properties explain how both positively charged objects and

negatively charged objects can attract neutral objects?

21- How can you charge an electroscope positively using a positively

charged rod? Using a negatively charged rod?

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

q) compare between gravitational force and electrical force by fill the

table?

Gravitational force Electric force

Field or contact
Small ,big
Attraction ,repulsion

46. Two charged bodies exert a force of 0.145 N on each other. If

they are moved so they are one-fourth as far apart, what force is
exerted?

58. Two identically charged spheres placed 12 cm apart have an

electrostatic force of 0.28 N between them. What is the charge on
each sphere?

57. A small sphere of charge 2.4 µC experiences a force of 0.36 N

when a second sphere of unknown charge is placed 5.5 cm from it.
What is the charge of the second sphere?

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

23) Under each of these figures, write the suitable name of the

electrostatic charging way.

q)

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Mohammad abu salem first semester 2025– 2026
grade 12 general

Physics Unit ( 1 ) : static electricity

Q33)
1-how many electrons an neutral object must loose to gain a 1
coulomb .

2- can an object has a charge = + 4.24x10-18 C, why ?

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