ELECTRIC CHARGES

Electric charges are too small to see, but we do have direct experience with them. Rub your shoes quickly across a carpet. You may see and feel sparks. Run a brush or comb quickly through long straight hair. The hair may stand on end. Pull the clothes out of a clothes dryer just after they have stopped tumbling. The clothes may stick together.

The rubbing, tumbling, and brushing all strip electrons from one object and transfer them to another. One object has gained electrons or a net negative charge. The other object has a shortage of electrons or a net positive charge.

Protons and electrons, clothes just out of the dryer, and other objects with positive and negative electrical charges are attracted to and repelled by one other. The region of attraction and repulsion surrounding a charged object is called its electric field.

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