The Structure of Matter
The Structure of Matter
There is a large overlap of the world of static electricity and the everyday world that you experience. Clothes tumble in the dryer and cling together. You walk across the carpeting to exit a room and receive a door knob shock. You pull a wool sweater off at the end of the day and see sparks of electricity. During the dryness of winter, you step out of your car and receive a car door shock as you try to close the door. Sparks of electricity are seen as you pull a wool blanket off the sheets of your bed. You stroke your cat's fur and observe the fur standing up on its end. Bolts of lightning dash across the evening sky during a spring thunderstorm. And most tragic of all, you have a bad hair day. These are all static electricity events - events that can only be explained by an understanding of the physics of electrostatics.
Not only do electrostatic occurrences permeate the events of everyday life, without the forces associated with static electricity, life as we know it would be impossible. Electrostatic forces - both attractive and repulsive in nature - hold the world of atoms and molecules together in perfect balance. Without this electric force, material things would not exist. Atoms as the building blocks of matter depend upon these forces. And material objects, including us Earthlings, are made of atoms and the acts of standing and walking, touching and feeling, smelling and tasting, and even thinking is the result of electrical phenomenon. Electrostatic forces are foundational to our existence.
One of the primary questions to be asked in this unit of The Physics Classroom is: How can an object be charged and what affect does that charge have upon other objects in its vicinity? The answer to this question begins with an understanding of the structure of matter. Understanding charge as a fundamental quantity demands that we have an understanding of the structure of an atom. So we begin this unit with what might seem to many students
There is a large overlap of the world of static electricity and the everyday world that you experience. Clothes tumble in the dryer and cling together. You walk across the carpeting to exit a room and receive a door knob shock. You pull a wool sweater off at the end of the day and see sparks of electricity. During the dryness of winter, you step out of your car and receive a car door shock as you try to close the door. Sparks of electricity are seen as you pull a wool blanket off the sheets of your bed. You stroke your cat's fur and observe the fur standing up on its end. Bolts of lightning dash across the evening sky during a spring thunderstorm. And most tragic of all, you have a bad hair day. These are all static electricity events - events that can only be explained by an understanding of the physics of electrostatics.
Not only do electrostatic occurrences permeate the events of everyday life, without the forces associated with static electricity, life as we know it would be impossible. Electrostatic forces - both attractive and repulsive in nature - hold the world of atoms and molecules together in perfect balance. Without this electric force, material things would not exist. Atoms as the building blocks of matter depend upon these forces. And material objects, including us Earthlings, are made of atoms and the acts of standing and walking, touching and feeling, smelling and tasting, and even thinking is the result of electrical phenomenon. Electrostatic forces are foundational to our existence.
One of the primary questions to be asked in this unit of The Physics Classroom is: How can an object be charged and what affect does that charge have upon other objects in its vicinity? The answer to this question begins with an understanding of the structure of matter. Understanding charge as a fundamental quantity demands that we have an understanding of the structure of an atom. So we begin this unit with what might seem to many students