M 3.

2 Static Electricity and Conduction

1. Introduction
2. Static Electricity
3. Nature of Charges
4. Charged Bodies
5. Coulomb's Law of Charges
6. Unit of Charge
7. Electric Fields
8. Conduction of Electricity in
Solids, Liquids and Vacuum

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 1. Introduction
Electrostatics (electricity at rest) is a subject with which most From experiments such as this, he concluded that there must be
persons entering the field of electricity and electronics are somewhat two exactly opposite kinds of electricity.
familiar. For example, the way a person's hair stands on end after a
vigorous rubbing is an effect of electrostatics. While pursuing the Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, inventor, and
study of electrostatics, you will gain a better understanding of this philosopher, is credited with first using the terms positive and
common occurrence. Of even greater significance, the study of negative to describe the two opposite kinds of electricity. The charge
electrostatics will provide you with the opportunity to gain important produced on a glass rod when it is rubbed with silk, Franklin labelled
background knowledge and to develop concepts which are essential positive. He attached the term negative to the charge produced on
to the understanding of electricity and electronics. the silk. Those bodies which were not electrified or charged, he
called neutral.
Interest in the subject of static electricity can be traced back to the
Greeks. Thales of Miletus, a Greek philosopher and mathematician,
discovered that when an amber rod is rubbed with fur, the rod has
the amazing characteristic of attracting some very light objects such
2.Static Electricity
as bits of paper and shavings of wood. In a natural or neutral state, each atom in a body of matter will
have the proper number of electrons in orbit around it. Consequently,
About 1600, William Gilbert, an English scientist, made a study of the whole body of matter composed of the neutral atoms will also be
other substances which had been found to possess qualities of electrically neutral. In this state, it is said to have a "zero charge."
attraction similar to amber. Among these were glass, when rubbed Electrons will neither leave nor enter the neutrally charged body
with silk, and ebonite, when rubbed with fur. Gilbert classified all the should it come in contact with other neutral bodies. If, however, any
substances which possessed properties similar to those of amber as number of electrons is removed from the atoms of a body of matter,
electrics, a word of Greek origin meaning amber. there will remain more protons than electrons and the whole body of
matter will become electrically positive. Should the positively
Because of Gilbert's work with electrics, a substance such as charged body come in contact with another body having a normal
amber or glass when given a vigorous rubbing was recognized as charge, or having a negative (too many electrons) charge, an
being electrified, or charged with electricity. electric current will flow between them. Electrons will leave the more
In the year 1733, Charles Dufay, a French scientist, made an negative body and enter the positive body. This electron flow will
important discovery about electrification. He found that when a glass continue until both bodies have equal charges. When two bodies of
was rubbed with fur, both the glass rod and the fur became matter have unequal charges and are near one another, an electric
electrified. This realization came when he systematically placed the force is exerted between them because of their unequal charges.
glass rod and the fur near other electrified substances and found that However, since they are not in contact, their charges cannot
certain substances which were attracted to the glass rod were equalize. The existence of such an electric force, where current
repelled by the fur, and vice versa. cannot flow, is referred to as static electricity.

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 ("Static" in this instance means "not moving.") It is also referred to 3. Nature of Charges
as an electrostatic force. When in a natural or neutral state, an atom has an equal number
of electrons and protons. Because of this balance, the net negative
One of the easiest ways to create a static charge is by friction. charge of the electrons in orbit is exactly balanced by the net positive
When two pieces of matter are rubbed together, electrons can be charge of the protons in the nucleus, making the atom electrically
"wiped off" one material onto the other. If the materials used are neutral.
good conductors, it is quite difficult to obtain a detectable charge on
either, since equalizing currents can flow easily between the An atom becomes a positive ion whenever it loses an electron,
conducting materials. These currents equalize the charges almost as and has an overall positive charge. Conversely, whenever an atom
fast as they are created. A static charge is more easily created acquires an extra electron, it becomes a negative ion and has a
between non-conducting materials. When a hard rubber rod is negative charge.
rubbed with fur, the rod will accumulate electrons given up by the fur,
as shown in figure 2.1. Since both materials are poor conductors, Due to normal molecular activity, there are always ions present in
very little equalizing current can flow, and an electrostatic charge any material. If the number of positive ions and negative ions is
builds up. When the charge becomes great enough, current will flow equal, the material is electrically neutral. When the number of
regardless of the poor conductivity of the materials. These currents positive ions exceeds the number of negative ions, the material is
will cause visible sparks and produce a crackling sound. positively charged. The material is negatively charged whenever the
negative ions outnumber the positive ions.
Since ions are actually atoms without their normal number of
electrons, it is the excess or the lack of electrons in a substance that
determines its charge. In most solids, the transfer of charges is by
movement of electrons rather than ions. The transfer of charges by
ions will become more significant when we consider electrical activity
in liquids and gases. At this time, we will discuss electrical behaviour
in terms of electron movement.

4. Charged Bodies
One of the fundamental laws of electricity is that like charges
repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. A positive
charge and negative charge, being unlike, tend to move toward each
other. In the atom, the negative electrons are drawn toward the
positive protons in the nucleus. This attractive force is balanced by
the electron's centrifugal force caused by its rotation about the
Figure 2.1 - Static charges
nucleus.

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 As a result, the electrons remain in orbit and are not drawn into 5. Coulomb's Law of Charges
the nucleus. Electrons repel each other because of their like negative The relationship between attracting or repelling charged bodies
charges, and protons repel each other because of their like positive was first discovered and written about by a French scientist named
charges. Charles A. Coulomb. Coulomb's Law states that
The law of charged bodies may be demonstrated by a simple Charged bodies attract or repel each other with a force that is
experiment. Two pith (paper pulp) balls are suspended near one directly proportional to the product of their individual charges,
another by threads, as shown in figure 2.2. and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them.

The amount of attracting or repelling force which acts between two

electrically charged bodies in free space depends on two things - (1)
their charges and (2) the distance between them.

6. Unit of Charge
The process of electrons arriving or leaving is exactly what
happens when certain combinations of materials are rubbed
together: electrons from the atoms of one material are forced by the
rubbing to leave their respective atoms and transfer over to the
atoms of the other material. In other words, electrons comprise the
Figure 2.2 - Repulsion and attraction of charged bodies "fluid" hypothesized by Benjamin Franklin. The operational definition
of a coulomb as the unit of electrical charge (in terms of force
If a hard rubber rod is rubbed with fur to give it a negative charge generated between point charges) was found to be equal to an
and is then held against the right-hand ball in part (A), the rod will excess or deficiency of about 6,280,000,000,000,000,000 electrons.
give off a negative charge to the ball. The right-hand ball will have a Or, stated in reverse terms, one electron has a charge of about
negative charge with respect to the left-hand ball. When released, 0.00000000000000000016 coulombs. Being that one electron is the
the two balls will be drawn together, as shown in figure 2.2 (A). They smallest known carrier of electric charge, this last figure of charge for
will touch and remain in contact until the left-hand ball gains a portion the electron is defined as the elementary charge.
of the negative charge of the right-hand ball, at which time they will
swing apart as shown in figure 2.2 (C). If a positive or a negative 1 coulomb = 6,280,000,000,000,000,000 electrons
charge is placed on both balls (figure 2-2 (B)), the balls will repel
each other.

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 7. Electric Fields
The space between and around charged bodies in which their Figure 2.3 (A) represents the repulsion of like-charged bodies and
influence is felt is called an electric field of force. It can exist in air, their associated fields. Part (B) represents the attraction of unlike-
glass, paper, or a vacuum. electrostatic fields and dielectric fields charged bodies and their associated fields.
are other names used to refer to this region of force.
Fields of force spread out in the space surrounding their point of
origin and, in general, diminish in proportion to the square of the 8. Conduction of Electricity in Solids, Liquids and
distance from their source. Vacuum
The field about a charged body is generally represented by lines Solids
which are referred to as electrostatic lines of force. These lines are Electric current is the movement of valence electrons.
imaginary and are used merely to represent the direction and Conduction is the name of this process. It is more fully described in
strength of the field. To avoid confusion, the lines of force exerted by Chapter 1 of this Module. Generally, only metals conduct electricity.
a positive charge are always shown leaving the charge, and for a Some conduct better than others.
negative charge they are shown entering. Figure 2.3 illustrates the
use of lines to represent the field about charged bodies. The exception to this is graphite (one of the forms of the element
Carbon). Carbon is a non-metal which exhibits some electrical
conductivity.

Liquids
The only liquid elements which conduct are the liquid metals. At
room temperature liquid mercury is a conductor. Other metals
continue to conduct electricity when they are melted.
Non-metals such as water, alcohol, ethanoic acid, propanone,
hexane and so on, are all non-conductors of electricity.

However, it is possible to make some non-conducting liquids

conduct electricity, by a process called ionization. Ionized
substances are called ionic substances.

Ionic substances are made of charged particles - positive and

negative ions. In the solid state they are held very firmly in place in a
lattice structure. In the solid state the ions cannot move about at all.
Figure 2.3 - Electrostatic lines of force

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 When the ionic solid is melted, the bonds holding the ions in place Gases
in the lattice are broken. The ions can then move around freely. A gas in its normal state is one of the best insulators known.
However, in a similar way as liquid, it can be forced to conduct
When an electric current is applied to an ionic melt the electricity electricity by ionisation of the gas molecules. Ionisation of the gas
is carried by the ions that are now able to move. In an ionic melt the molecules can be effected by extremely high voltages. For example,
electric current is a flow of ions. lightning, is electric current flowing through an ionised path through
air due to the huge electrical potential difference between the storm
Taking water as an example. Remember firstly, that water is cloud and the ground.
considered to be a non-conductor of electricity. It can allow some
electricity through it if a high voltage is applied to it. This is due to the In air, and other ordinary gases, the dominant source of electrical
presence of a minute concentration of H+ and OH- ions in the water. conduction is via a relatively small number of mobile ions produced
However, electrons cannot flow through water. by radioactive gases, ultraviolet light, or cosmic rays. Since the
electrical conductivity is extremely low, gases are dielectrics or
Covalent substances do not conduct at all in solution. insulators. However, once the applied electric field approaches the
breakdown value, free electrons become sufficiently accelerated by
Ionic substances are able to conduct electricity when they are the electric field to create additional free electrons by colliding, and
dissolved in water. ionizing, neutral gas atoms or molecules in a process called
avalanche breakdown. The breakdown process forms a plasma that
The reason lies again in the fact that ionic substances are made of contains a significant number of mobile electrons and positive ions,
charged particles - ions. When the ionic solid is dissolved in water causing it to behave as an electrical conductor. In the process, it
the ionic lattice breaks up and the ions become free to move around forms a light emitting conductive path, such as a spark, arc or
in the water. When you pass electricity through the ionic solution, the lightning.
ions are able to carry the electric current because of their ability to
move freely. A solution conducts by means of freely moving ions.
Plasma is the state of matter where some of the electrons in a
An electrolyte is a liquid which can carry an electric current gas are stripped or "ionized" from their molecules or atoms. A
through it. Ionic solutions and ionic melts are all electrolytes. plasma can be formed by high temperature, or by application of a
high electric or alternating magnetic field as noted above. Due to
Electrolysis describes the process which takes place when an their lower mass, the electrons in a plasma accelerate more quickly
ionic solution or melt has electricity passed through it. in response to an electric field than the heavier positive ions, and
hence carry the bulk of the current.

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 Vacuum
It is a common belief that electricity cannot flow through a
vacuum. This is however incorrect. Remember that a conductor is
"something through which electricity can flow," rather than
"something which contains movable electricity." A vacuum offers no
blockage to moving charges. Should electrons be injected into a
vacuum, the electrons will flow uninhibited and un-retarded. As
such, a vacuum is an ideal conductor.

This fact is taken advantage of in many situations, from televisions

to vacuum valves. A vacuum arc can arise when the surfaces of
metal electrodes in contact with a good vacuum begin to emit
electrons either through heating (thermionic emission) or via an
a vacuum arc can persist since the freed particles gain kinetic
energy from the electric field, heating the metal surfaces through
high speed particle collisions. This process can create an
incandescent cathode spot which frees more particles, thereby
sustaining the arc. At sufficiently high currents an incandescent
anode spot may also be formed.

Electrical discharge in vacuum is important for certain types of

vacuum tubes and for high voltage vacuum switches.

Figure 2.4 - Lightning is electric current flowing through an ionized

plasma of its own making

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