What is Electrostatic: Definition and 879 Discussions

Electrostatics is a branch of physics that studies electric charges at rest.
Since classical physics, it has been known that some materials, such as amber, attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The Greek word for amber, ήλεκτρον, or electron, was thus the source of the word 'electricity'. Electrostatic phenomena arise from the forces that electric charges exert on each other. Such forces are described by Coulomb's law.
Even though electrostatically induced forces seem to be rather weak, some electrostatic forces such as the one between an electron and a proton, that together make up a hydrogen atom, is about 36 orders of magnitude stronger than the gravitational force acting between them.
There are many examples of electrostatic phenomena, from those as simple as the attraction of the plastic wrap to one's hand after it is removed from a package to the apparently spontaneous explosion of grain silos, the damage of electronic components during manufacturing, and photocopier & laser printer operation. Electrostatics involves the buildup of charge on the surface of objects due to contact with other surfaces. Although charge exchange happens whenever any two surfaces contact and separate, the effects of charge exchange are usually only noticed when at least one of the surfaces has a high resistance to electrical flow. This is because the charges that transfer are trapped there for a time long enough for their effects to be observed. These charges then remain on the object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge: e.g., the familiar phenomenon of a static "shock" is caused by the neutralization of charge built up in the body from contact with insulated surfaces.

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  1. S

    Concentric spheres and electrostatic induction

    Homework Statement There's three thick, conducting concentric spheres with radii R1, R2, R3 (R1 < R2 < R3) with charge Q1, Q2, Q3 respectively. a.- The middle one is now wired to the ground. Find its net charge b.- The internal and external spheres are now wired. Find the distribution of all...
  2. S

    Calculating Electrostatic Pressure on a Charged Sphere

    Homework Statement A sphere with radius R is charged with surface density σ. The charge found in a small surface Δs is repelled by the rest of the sphere, thus generating an electrostatic pressure. Find the pressure. Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I think I have to compute the...
  3. R

    Electrostatic dust distribution

    Hi, I am more familiar with the world of biology and chemistry, however I am trying to come up with a method to evenly distribute dust over a surface area which may require a bit of Physics help. I was wondering is there any way of say, positively charging an aluminium foil surface and...
  4. L

    Light in electrostatic potential

    Is electromagnetic radiation affected, in any way, by a strong electrostatic field (or gradient of field)? Specifically, is it possible to reflect light with such a field or to confine an EM wave inside an electrostatic potential well?
  5. G

    Is electrostatic just stationary electricity?

    this is short: is electrostatic just electricity that isn't moving and electricity is electricity moving? thanx :)
  6. I

    Electrostatic Filter for Computers

    I'm a senior student in high school requesting assistance and/or evaluation of a small-scale electrostatic filter for computer usage as a dust remover to prevent or mitigate build up of dust inside a computer. Isometric pictures of the main parts are available. It is basically an...
  7. LarryS

    Energy of Electrostatic Charge ?

    Does a charged particle at rest (m0>0) have more total energy than an uncharged particle with the same rest mass at rest? Thanks in advance.
  8. C

    Electrostatic Potential Energy

    Homework Statement What is the electrostatic potential energy of an isolated spherical conductor of radius 24 cm that is charged to 3.9 kV? Homework Equations Electric potential U = (kQ)/r The Attempt at a Solution U = ((8.99 * 109 ) * (3.9 * 103)/(0.24) Could...
  9. A

    Electrostatic Force Equation Help

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  10. K

    Electrostatic Force Direction

    Homework Statement A charge of -3.00 µC is fixed at the center of a compass. Two additional charges are fixed on the circle of the compass (radius = 0.125 m). The charges on the circle are -4.00 µC at the position due north and +5.00 µC at the position due east. What is the magnitude and...
  11. N

    AnswerSolving Electrostatic Force: Find Charge & Mass

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  12. A

    Angular momentum in an electrostatic field

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  13. S

    Electrostatic potential and electric fields

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  14. Z

    Calculating point charges and ratio of electrostatic force to weight

    Homework Statement Measurements show that a honeybee in active flight can acquire an electrostatic charge on the order of 93 pC. a)How many electrons much be transferred to produce this charge? Ne = * b) Supposing two bees, both with this charge, are separated by a distance of 12 cm...
  15. S

    Magnitude of the Net Electrostatic Force On an Oxygen Atom

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  16. K

    Spring and electrostatic forces

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  17. H

    Net Electrostatic Force on a neg charge next to a pos charge inbetween a field

    Homework Statement Two point charges, Q1 = -6.9 µC and Q2 = 1.1 µC are located between two oppositely charged parallel plates, as shown in Fig. 16-65. The two charges are separated by a distance of x = 0.38 m. Assume that the electric field produced by the charged plates is uniform and equal...
  18. T

    Electrostatic charge of Scotch tape

    The other day I ran across a writeup for a general physics experiment (it might have come out of a high school AP course - I'm not sure) about using charged Scotch tape to separate charges for the purpose of measuring the charge through a torque equilibrium setup. The technique was to put a...
  19. W

    Find the electrostatic potential due to a hoop of charge

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  20. A

    Net Electrostatic Force on particles

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  21. K

    How Do You Calculate the Charges on Two Spheres in Electrostatic Equilibrium?

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  22. L

    Show that a longitudinal wave is electrostatic

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  23. J

    Electrostatic Series: Does Rubber & Glass Affect Charged Comb?

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  24. S

    Gauss's Law 2 concentric cylinders in electrostatic equilibrium

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  25. F

    DNA Comparison of Potential Energy, RMS Deviation, Electrostatic Energy

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  26. A

    Non-Electrostatic Problem: Closest Distance of Approach

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  27. A

    Why Is the Left Term of Equation 539 Eliminated in Electrostatic Calculations?

    The original web http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/em/lectures/node56.html Reading the web which is posted above I got a question ... I need some masters to help me! My question : why not to remain the left term of eq539 instead of eliminating it by "Let us...
  28. F

    Finding Zero Net Electrostatic Force of +ve Charge b/w q1 & q2

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  29. A

    Electrostatic effect of a current carrying conductor

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  30. X

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  31. A

    Electrostatic Force on b: Positive & Negative?

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  32. S

    Designing an Electrostatic Sensor with COMSOL

    Hi All, I am pretty new to COMSOL. I want design model of a sensor with four electrode. This sensor mainly based on impedance spectroscopy principle. The model should measure the distance and thickness of the obstacle due to change in capacitive impedance of electrostatic field between the...
  33. M

    What Determines the Charge of an Object in Electrostatic Induction?

    1. A body will maintain a constant negative electrostatic charge if the body 1) Maintains the same excess of electrons. 3) Continuously receives more electrons than it loses. I chose 3) but I think both choices work. However, the correct answer is 1), I don’t why 3) is wrong. 2...
  34. L

    Solving Possion's equation: electrostatic potential

    I have the problem and my work uploaded to this webpage. I believe I have the general idea down, but I'm just afraid that I've done a careless calculation and missed a minus sign somewhere. I feel that my results have a lot of negative signs, making the potential constantly negative. I'm not...
  35. K

    Magnitude of en electric field and electrostatic field

    Homework Statement I have a solid, insulating, finite-thickness spherical shell (inner radius a, outer radius b). It's uniformly charged with a total charge of Q. I'm looking for the electric field E, "everywhere in space, including points outside and inside the spherical shell" Also...
  36. A

    Why Do Like Charges Repel & Unlike Charges Attract?

    why like charges repel n unlike charge attract each other?
  37. J

    Electrostatic force question

    Homework Statement Three charged particles form a triangle: particle 1 with charge Q1=80nC is at xy coordinates (0,3.00mm) particle 2 with charge q2 is at (0,-3.00mm) and particle 3 is at(4.00mm,0). In unit vector notation, what is the electrostatic force on particle 3 due to the other two...
  38. M

    Calculating Electrostatic Force on a Charge in a Compass

    Homework Statement A charge of -4.10 C is fixed at the center of a compass. Two additional charges are fixed on the circle of the compass (radius = 0.137 m). The charges on the circle are -3.58 C at the position due north and +6.79 C at the position due east. What is (a) the magnitude and...
  39. J

    Electrostatic force sphere problem

    The problem: Two identical conducting spheres, fixed in place, attract each other with an electrostatic force of 0.158 N when their center-to-center separation is 63.2 cm. The spheres are then connected by a thin conducting wire. When the wire is removed, the spheres repel each other with an...
  40. J

    Electrostatic force - charges jumping between objects

    So I have this homework question that I answered already but still don't understand why the answer is correct. A positively charged ball is brought close to an electrically neutral isolated conductor. The conductor is then grounded while the ball is kept close. Is the conductor charged...
  41. S

    Electrostatic Force and Superposition Principal

    Homework Statement Three charges are arranged as shown in the figure. Figure (Attached Below Could not insert the image, wouldn't work for me) Find the magnitude of the electrostatic force on the charge at the origin. Answer in units of nN. What is the angle theta betwen the...
  42. T

    Electrostatic force including coulombs law

    Homework Statement Of the charge Q initially on a tiny sphere, a portion q is to be transferred to a second, nearby sphere. Both spheres can be treated a particles. For what value of q/Q>0.5 will the electrostatic force between the two parts have 1/2 of the maximum possible value? The...
  43. D

    Electricity electrostatic

    2 balls with a mass of 100kg are at a distance of 5m from one another, how many electrons need to be moved from one to the other in order to balance the gravitational force by an electric force, from what i understand, we have 2 neutral balls of the same mass, and i need to find out how much...
  44. W

    Questions regarding electrostatic charge decay.

    Hi, I've had a pretty good experience with physics forum in the past, so when I ran across something I couldn't find an answer to on the web, I figured why not ask it here.. I found a great introduction to electrostatic charge decay located at...
  45. W

    Electrostatic Energy of a thin spherical shell

    hey, i have a question from an exam paper which isn't worded too nicely (most of the questions on the exam are worded in similar ways :grumpy:) The way I've done it is to first put in my first shell of infintesimal charge and then treat it as a point charge. Then i treat the next shell as just...
  46. A

    What is mean by charge in an electrostatic equilibrium ?

    what is mean by "charge in an electrostatic equilibrium" ?? In my textbook the definition of the potential difference is that "The workdone on a unit positive charge carrying it from one point to the other kepping the charge in electrostatic equilibrium" In my textbook electrostatic mean...
  47. M

    Complex analysis of electrostatic problem

    I'm not sure whether to post this in the Mathematics or Physics forums, but I figure this problem is easily reduced to its transformation irrespective of the physics it describes. Consider a semi-infinite sheet of (infinitely thin) conductor charged to a potential V. It is placed at a distance...
  48. H

    Could Gravity be an Electrostatic force?

    I stumbled with this paper that propose the idea that gravity could possibly be an Electrostatic force. I am no physicist but I would like to know your points of view about it, since gravity is a puzzling force. http://www.aspden.org/arp/2005arp3.pdf I have also heard about some possible...
  49. J

    ANSYS for MEMS (Especially Electrostatic)

    Does anyone have experience simulating MEMS (especially multi-coupled electrostatic analysis) in ANSYS that would answer a few questions.
  50. L

    Calculating Electrostatic Force: q1 and q2

    Homework Statement The charges and coordinates of two charged particles held fixed in an xy plane are q1 = +3.5 µC, x1 = 1.5 cm, y1 = 0.50 cm, and q2 = -4.0 µC, x2 = -2.0 cm, y2 = 1.5 cm. (a) Find the magnitude of the electrostatic force on q2. Done I got this part = 94.98868N (b) Find the...
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