Basic Properties of Electric Charges

Electric charges can be found not only in science but also in people’s everyday life. Touching dry hair with a ruler, for example, raises some hair strands, and this occurs because electric charges exist in everything. The just-mentioned scenario involved electric charges that were briefly charged.

But have you ever thought about how it’s possible? What is the process of generating electricity? Today, we’ll look at the definition of electric charge, as well as the basic properties of electric charges.

What is Electric Charge?

Electric charge is the basic physical property of matter (held in the subatomic particles which constitute the matter), which determines how the electric or magnetic field will affect the particles. An electric charge is created by an electric field, whereas moving electric charges create a magnetic field.
The electromagnetic force is created by the interplay of electric and magnetic fields. The electromagnetic field is the field that is created by combining the electric and the magnetic fields.

Types of Electric Charges

Before we discuss the basic properties of electric charge, there are two kinds of electric charge- 

• Positive Charge (+): A positive charge indicates that an object contains more protons than electrons.

• Negative Charge (-): A negative charge indicates that an object contains more electrons than protons.

Note- If a matter has the same number of positive and negative charges. Then charges will balance out, and the result will become neutral.

Basic Properties of Electric Charge

The electric charges are called point charges when the dimension of the electrically charged bodies is minimal. Let’s take a note of the basic properties of electric charge. 

1. Additive property of electric charge: Electric charges are cumulative, and the type of electric charge they carry influences this property. It has a scalar value. It is possible to add the charges directly. Consider the following scenario: a system with only two charges, q1 and q2.

The total charge of the system can be computed using this property by adding q1 and q2, i.e., q1 + q2. The same behaviour happens if there are enough particles of electric charge. 

2. Conservative Nature of Electric Charge: A particle’s electric charge is conservative. It signifies that the charge can’t be created or eliminated in any way. Conduction and induction are two mechanisms that can transfer charges from one system to another. 

It is analogous to the law of mass conservation and the first law of thermodynamics (i.e., the law of conservation of energy). When two bodies rub together, electrons are transferred from one body to another.

Consider the case of a system with a total charge of 10C. That charge can be redistributed as 2C, 3C or 5C or any other permutation. Several systems can lose an equal quantity of protons and electrons simultaneously. As a result,  the system’s final charge will be identical to that initially. Neutrino decay exhibits this property. 

Neutrinos lose one electron and one proton during decay. As the resulting system loses electrons and protons of equal quantities and opposite signs, the total charge of the system will eventually become zero. 

3. Quantization of Charge: This is one of the fundamental properties of electric charge. The charge is technically a quantised quantity. The integral multiples of the basic unit of charge (i.e. 1.6 x 10-19 C) can be used to indicate a system’s net charge. If the body’s net charge is q, the equation can be stated as:

q = ne

n must be an integer number in this formula; it cannot be a fractional or irrational value. As a result, any positive or negative integer can be used as the value of n. For instance, the value of n can be 1, -1, 2, -3, 4, -5 and so on. The letter ‘e’ stands for the fundamental charge unit carried by the electron and proton. The charge on a proton is traditionally symbolised by the letter ‘e,’ while the charge on an electron is signified by the letter ‘-e.’

Coulomb’s Law

Let’s discuss Coulomb’s Law on electric charges. 

The law governing the force between electric charges is known as Coulomb’s Law. Between two fixed points of electric charges, the electrostatic interaction of force is proportional to the average of the charges, inversely related to the source of the distance between them. It works along the straight line linking the two charges.

Conclusion 

The way we quantify how much electric force an object feels is through an electric charge.

Here, we’ve learned about the electric charges, types of electric charges, basic properties of electric charges, and more. As the topic is essential in Physics, you must understand it thoroughly.