Static Electricity & Charge

12PHYS - Electricity

Finn Le Sueur

2024

Mahi Tuatahi

On the board, brainstorm all the things you can remember about electricity from Year 10!

Te Whāinga Ako

  1. Explain how static electricity is created by the removal or addition of electric charge.

Static Electricity

Static electricity has many effects - some dangerous, some hilarious, but they all depend on charge!

Static Electricity

Charges: Positive & Negative

From Year 10 we should all remember that, much like magnets, opposites attract and likes repel.

Electric Charges

Charge Carriers

  • Recall: the atom. What element is this? What are the three subatomic particles that make it up?
  • Draw this diagram in your book and label the particles and the charge they carry.

  • Electrons: Negatively charged
  • Protons: Positively charged
  • Neutrons: No charge

Pātai: What happens when an atom loses or gains electrons?

Ions

  • Electrons are charged, extremely light, and move very fast. Therefore they can sometimes escape an atom.
  • An ion is formed when an atom gains or loses electrons.
  • Losing electrons makes you positively charged and is called a cation.
  • Gaining electrons makes you negatively charged and is called an anion.
Source

Pātai: How to move charges?

What did we do in Year 10 Pūtaiao to remove charges from one object and put them onto another?

Whakatika

We applied friction!

Pātai

  1. Open the static electricity simulation on Google Classroom.
  2. Play with the simulation to get a feel for what you can do.
  3. In your book, describe what is happening at a charge level when you:
    1. Rub the balloon on the jersey
    2. Bring the balloon close to the wall
    3. Release the balloon when pressed against the wall
    4. Release the balloon in empty space

Use the following language in your answers: friction, transfer, electrons, protons, positive, negative, neutral, attracted, repelled, mobile, non-mobile, net charge, charge distribution.

Whakatika

  1. When the balloon is rubbed on the jersery, friction occurs. This friction transfers electrons from the jersery to the balloon, leaving the jersery with an deficit of electrons and a net positive charge and the balloon with a excess of electrons and a net negative charge.
  2. When the negatively charged balloon is brought near the wall, some of the surface electrons are repelled by the balloon’s charge. This causes a spot of positive charge to occur near the balloon. The protons do not move (are not mobile). The wall remains neutral overall.
  3. If released, the balloon sticks to the wall due to the attraction of its negative charge and the uneven charge distribution of the wall (positive spot).
  4. If released in space, the negatively charged balloon is attracted to the positively charged jersey because opposites attract.