PHYSICS C10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Electric Field, Direct Current, Electronegativity
Document Summary
What is a field: can be created by mass (gravitational field), charge (electric field), current (moving charges create magnetic field, there is no true vacuum in the sense of nothingness in physics. No matter where you go, you will be in a field: electricity. E = f q where k is a constant. Gm1m2: charge is conserved just like energy. Poles: monopole = simplest kind of electric field, pulls opposite charges directly toward it, dipole = two poles. Voltage: muller describes voltage as energy, but it is actually potential energy per charge, suppose you have a fixed monopole. Pulling an oppositely-charged particle away from the monopole requires work, and increasing its electrical potential energy or electrostatic energy. Dividing by the charge gives you the potential: just like in potential energy mgh, height doesn"t matter, only difference in height matters; in electrical potential, only differences in electrical potential energy matter. Current: current = flow of electrons through a wire.
