Lesson 3: Electric Force
Overview:
In this activity, you will review electric charge and the Laws of Electric Charges. You will learn about Coulomb's Law, and you will quantitatively determine electric forces between sets of charged particles. You will have the opportunity to practice using Coulomb's Law with an animation incorporating a number of point charges. You will practise your ability to manipulate different variables. The activity culminates with an inquiry in which you use a computer simulation to investigate Coulomb's Law.
Curriculum Expectations:
Overall Expectations:
D3. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts, properties, principles, and laws related to gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields and their interactions with matter.
Specific Expectations:
D2.1 Use appropriate terminology related to fields, including, but not limited to: forces, potential energies, potential, and exchange particles.
D2.3 Analyze, and solve problems involving, electric force, field strength, potential energy, and potential as they apply to uniform and non-uniform electric fields (e.g., the fields produced by a parallel plate and by point charges).
D3.2 Compare and contrast the corresponding properties of gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields (e.g., the strength of each field; the relationship between charge in electric fields and mass in gravitational fields).
D3. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts, properties, principles, and laws related to gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields and their interactions with matter.
Specific Expectations:
D2.1 Use appropriate terminology related to fields, including, but not limited to: forces, potential energies, potential, and exchange particles.
D2.3 Analyze, and solve problems involving, electric force, field strength, potential energy, and potential as they apply to uniform and non-uniform electric fields (e.g., the fields produced by a parallel plate and by point charges).
D3.2 Compare and contrast the corresponding properties of gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields (e.g., the strength of each field; the relationship between charge in electric fields and mass in gravitational fields).
Success Criteria:
- Describe the properties of Coulomb/Electric/Electrostatic force. Please note tha this force goes under various names, but they are all really referring to the same force.
- Since the electric force is extremely strong, why, then, does it not dominate everyday life?
- Describe how the superposition principle can be used to find the net force acting on a single charge due to many other charges.
- How does the negative sign help in determining the direction of the electric force?
Time Allocation: 3 hours
Learning Activities:
Read pages 327 - 332 from Nelson 7.2
In the playlist below, video:
- In this three part lecture, it will introduce you to Coulomb's law, which describes the electric force between two charged particles or objects. It's format is similar to Newton's law of gravity, though Coulomb's constant is much larger than the gravitational constant!
Practice questions 1 and 3 on page 332.
Task:
Solve questions 1, 4, 6, and 9 from Nelson 7.2 Review on page 333.
Optional Extension:
Optional Extension:
- Solve questions 5 and 8 on page 333.
Reflect:
Hank reaches the fourth and final of the four fundamental interactions in physics: electromagnetism. In this part, he teaches us about the electrostatic force, which builds up a charge in an object and can travel in the form of an electron stream.
Stay tuned for Part II, where we will finish up the series with the magnetic force.
Stay tuned for Part II, where we will finish up the series with the magnetic force.
