Electricity and Magnetism
PHYS 102
Electricity and magnetism are related to the existence and motion of electric charges.
Law of conservation of charge: the amount of charge in a region cannot change except by charges flowing across the boundary of the region.
A flow of charges is called current.
- conductor
- insulator
- (semiconductor)
- (superconductor)
Both insulators and conductors can be charged. When charges are placed on conductors, they repel each other and spread out to minimize electrostatic potential energy.
The electric field of a point charge is . points from the point charge to the point of interest, and is placed at the point of interest. Electric fields exist regardless of the presence of a second charge.