PHYSICS EXAM REVIEWER

1. Which of the following is TRUE about

electric charge?
7. What is the electric field strength at a point
A) It can be lost. 50 cm from a charge q = +5.00 nC?
B) It is created from a chemical reaction. A) 180 N/C B) 360 N/C
C) It can be destroyed. C) 540 N/C D) 720 N/C
D) It can be transferred from atom to atom. 8. A 1.65 nC charge with a mass of 1.5 x 10 -15 kg
experiences an acceleration of 6.33 x 107 m/s2 in
2. Which of the following is the most effective
an electric field. What is the magnitude of the
conductor?
electric field?
A) Iron B) Water
A) 14.95 N/C B) 29.35 N/C
C) Oil D) Wood
C) 57.55 N/C D) 2.67 x 10-19 N/C
3. Which of the following is FALSE?
9. Three point charges are located on the x-
A) Electric field lines never intersect. axis. The first charge, q1 = +10 µC, is at x = -
1.0 m. The second charge, q2 = +20 µC, is at
B) The electric field lines produced by a positive the origin. The third charge, q3 = - 30 µC, is
charge are directed radially outward. located at x = +2.0 m. What is the net force on
C) The electric field lines produced by a negative q2?
charge are directed radially inward. A) 6.3 N to the negative x-direction
D) A static charge never produces an electric B) 1.50 N to the negative x- direction
field.
C) 3.15 N to the positive x- direction
4. What is the direction of the electric field at
the test point on the -x-axis, 50 cm from the D) 4.80 N to the positive x- direction
charge q = +5.00 nC which is located at the
10. What is the magnitude of the net electric
origin?
field at (+1.0 m, 0) due to the three charges in
A) Eastward C) Northward number 9?

B) Westward D) Southward A) 198, 256 N/C B) 297, 348 N/C

5. An electron traveling horizontally from C) 472,500 N/C D) 655, 490 N/C

North to South enters a region where a
uniform electric field is directed downward.
What is the direction of the electric force
exerted on the electron once it has entered the
field?
A) Downward C) To the east
B) Upward D) To the west
6. The electric field has a magnitude of 3.0 N/C
at a distance of 30 cm from a point charge.
What is the charge?
A) 1.4 nC B) 30 pC
C) 36 mC D) 12 mC
 PHYSICS EXAM REVIEWER
b. It is a measure of the amount of charge stored in
a capacitor.
1. Which of the following is the unit of electric
potential? c. It is a measure of the ability of a capacitor to
store charge.
a. Volts b. joules c. watts d. amperes
d. It is a measure of the voltage across a capacitor.
2. The electric potential at a point in an electric
field is defined as the 7. Which of the following factors does NOT
affect the capacitance of a parallel plate
a. work done per unit charge in moving a test
capacitor?
charge from infinity to that point
a. Distance between the plates
b. work done per unit distance in moving a test
charge from infinity to that point b. Area of the plates
c. force per unit charge at that point c. Dielectric constant of the material between the
plates
d. charge per unit area at that point
d. Temperature of the material between the plates
3. If two point charges are moved from infinity
to a point in an electric field, and the work 8. Which of the following is NOT a unit of
done is zero, then capacitance?
a. the charges are of the same sign a. Farad b. Coulomb c. Picofarad d. Microfarad
b. the charges are of opposite sign 9. Two capacitors are connected in series.
Which of the following statements is true?
c. the charges are both positive
a. The total capacitance is the sum of the
d. the charges are both negative
individual capacitances.
4. If a positive charge is moved in the direction
b. The total capacitance is less than the
of an electric field, its potential energy
capacitance of either individual capacitor.
a. increases
c. The total capacitance is greater than the
b. decreases capacitance of either individual capacitor.

c. remains the same d. The total capacitance is equal to the product of

the individual capacitances.
d. becomes zero
10. Two capacitors are connected in parallel.
5. Which of the following is true regarding Which of the following statements is true?
equipotential surfaces?
a. The total capacitance is the sum of the
a. They are perpendicular to electric field lines individual capacitances.
b. They always have the same potential b. The total capacitance is less than the
c. Work done by an external force is zero when a capacitance of either individual capacitor.
charge is moved along an equipotential surface c. The total capacitance is greater than the
d. All of the above capacitance of either individual capacitor.

6. Which of the following statements about d. The total capacitance is equal to the product of
capacitance is true? the individual capacitances.

a. It is a measure of the amount of energy stored in 11. Which of the following materials has the
a capacitor. highest dielectric constant?
a. Air b. Glass c. Paper d. Water
 PHYSICS EXAM REVIEWER

12. Which of the following factors does NOT Electric Charge

affect the energy stored in a capacitor?
 When a plastic comb is rubbed with fur
a) Capacitance and held near a pith ball, the pith ball is
attracted to the comb.
b) Voltage across the capacitor
 The pith ball swings away from the comb
c) Charge stored in the capacitor after touching the comb.
 If a glass rod rubbed with silk is brought
d) Resistance of the circuit near the pith ball, it will react just as it did
13. What is the formula for calculating the with the comb.
capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor?  It was contended that something, a charge,
had been added to the comb or the rod to
a) C = Q/V b) C = εA/d attract the pith ball.
c) C = Q²/2εA d) C = V²/2εA  This charge is called an electric charge

14. A capacitor is charged to a voltage of 10 V Two kinds of electric charge

and has a capacitance of 5 µF. How much 1. Positive
energy is stored in the capacitor? 2. Negative
a) 0.25 µJ b) 2.5 µJ Like charges repel, opposite charges attract
c) 25 µJ d) 250 µJ Electric charge is conserved
15. A capacitor is connected to a 12 V battery Principle of Conservation of Charge
and has a capacitance of 3 µF. How much
charge is stored in the capacitor?  The algebraic sum of all electric charges in
any closed system is constant
a) 4 µC b) 36 µC  The magnitude of charge of the electron or
c) 144 µC d) 432 µC proton is a natural unit of charge
Conductors – materials whose electric charges
are free to move within are called conductors
Electricity
Insulators – in some materials, electric charges
 The term electricity came from the word are not free to move within. Such materials are
elektron, or amber called insulators.
 Given the name electricity by Sir Wilhelm
Gilbert because amber had been the first Semiconductors – are intermediate in their
substance known by the ancients to exhibit properties between good conductors and good
electrification by rubbing insulators.

Electrostatic Force Superconductors – become perfect conductors at

very low temperatures.
 A plastic comb rubbed with a piece of fur
can attract little bits of paper Charging By Conduction
 This ability to attract resembles that of a  Conductors can be charged by conduction.
magnet  Conduction is the transfer of electrons
 However, magnets are only attracted to from a charged object to another object by
iron while amber attracts all substances direct contact.
 This attractive force is known as  In the conduction process, a body with one
electrostatic force type of charge produces the same type of
Atoms are made up of charges charge on a conductor.
 PHYSICS EXAM REVIEWER
each charge and therefore are proportional
to the product q1q2 of the two charges.
Charging By Induction
Coulomb’s Law
 There is a different technique in which the
plastic rod can give another body a charge  The magnitude of the electric force
of opposite sign without losing any of its between two point charges is directly
own charge. proportional to the product of the charges
 This process is called charging by and inversely proportional to the square of
induction. the distance between them
 Induction is the movement of electrons to
one part of an object by the electric field of
another object.
 In the induction process, the opposite type
of charge is produced
 A ground is simply a large object that
serves as an almost infinite source of
electrons or sink for electrons. Direction of the Force
 A ground contains such vast space that it is  Along the line joining them
the ideal object to either receive electrons  When the charges have the same sign,
or supply electrons to whatever object either both positive or both negative, the
needs to get rid of them or receive them. forces are repulsive; when the charges
Charles Agustin de Coulomb have opposite signs, the forces are
attractive.
 1784
 A French physicist Electric Field
 Discovered the nature of electrical forces  Whenever you have a source charge q1
exerted by bodies upon one another placed anywhere in space, it will be
 He used a torsion balance similar to the surrounded by a region such that if you
one used 13 years later by Cavendish to will put any other charge q2 at any field
study the much weaker gravitational point P in this region, charge q2 will be
interaction. acted upon by an electric force, Fe. We
Point Charge call this region around q1 the electric field
of q1.
 Charged bodies that are very small in  The electric field is a vector quantity.
comparison with the distance r between  The direction of the electric field is along
them, Coulomb found that the electric the line connecting the field point P and
force is proportional to 1/r2. the source charge q1.
 That is, when the distance is doubled, the  The field lines produced by positive
force decreases to ¼ of its initial value; charges are directed radially outward while
when the distance is halved, the force that of negative charges are directed
increases to four times its initial value radially inward.
Coulomb’s Experiment
 The electric force between two point
charges also depends on the quantity of
charge on each body, which we will denote
by q or Q.
 In his experiment, Coulomb found that the
forces that two point charges q1 and q2
exert on each other are proportional to
 PHYSICS EXAM REVIEWER
be expressed in terms of the electric
potential energy U
 The work done is equal to the negative of
the change in electric potential energy.
 The potential difference between two
points can be expressed as

Whether the test charge is positive or negative, the

following general rules apply:
1. U increases if a test charge moves in the
direction opposite to the electric force acting on it.
2. U decreases if a test charge moves in the same
direction as the electric force acting on it.

Electric Potential
 Potential energy is the energy stored by an
object because of its position relative to
other objects, its electric charge, or other
factors. A common type of potential Electron Volt
energy includes the electric potential
energy.  One electron volt (1 eV) is the kinetic
 Electric Potential, V, is defined as the energy gained by an electron moving
potential energy per unit charge. through a potential difference of one volt
 The electric potential energy is shown by (1 V).
two elements, the charge possessed by the
object itself and the position relative to an
object with respect to electrically charged Equipotential Line
objects.
 The magnitude of electric potential is  An equipotential is a line surface over
dependent on the amount of work done in which the electric potential (V) is constant
moving the object from one point to at every point.
another against the electric field.  Electric field lines are perpendicular to
equipotentials.
Equipotential Surface
 An equipotential surface is one on which
all points are at the same potential.
 The potential difference between any two
points on an equipotential surface is zero;
Potential Difference there is no work done to move a charge
between two points.
 If the electric force is conservative, then
the work done by this force on a charged Characteristics of Equipotential Surfaces
particle moving from point a to point a can
1. No work is done to move a charge between two
points on the same equipotential surface.
 PHYSICS EXAM REVIEWER
2. Electric filed lines are perpendicular to
equipotential surface.
3. The surface of a conductor is an equipotential
surface.
Capacitor
 A capacitor is a device that stores electric
potential energy and electric charge
 Capacitors have a tremendous number of
practical applications in devices such as Capacitors in Series
electronic flash units for photography,
pulsed lasers, air bag sensors, for cars, and  The capacitors have the same charge Q
radio and television receivers  Their potential differences add:
 Any two conductors separated by an
insulator, (or a vacuum) form a capacitor
 Charge is the same as for the individual
Capacitance capacitors
 Equivalent capacitance is less than the
 For a particular capacitor, the ratio of the
individual capacitances:
charge on each conductor to the potential
difference between the conductors is a
constant, called the capacitance
 The capacitance depends on the sizes and
shapes of the conductors and on the
insulating material (if any) between them
 Compared to the case in which there is Equivalent Capacitance
only vacuum between the conductors, the
 Is defined as the capacitance of a single
capacitance increases when an insulating
capacitor for which the charge is the same
material (a dielectric) is present
for as the combination, when the potential
difference is the same
 In other words, the combination can be
replaced by an equivalent capacitor of
capacitance

The reciprocal of the equivalent capacitance of a

series combination equals the sum of the
reciprocals of the individual capacitances.
Capacitors in Parallel
Unit for Capacitance
 The capacitors have the same potential V
 One farad (1 F)  The charge on each capacitor depends on
 Coulomb per volt its capacitance:
The simplest form of capacitor consists of two
parallel conducting plates, each with area  Charge is the sum of the individual
separated by a distance that is small in comparison
with their dimensions charges:
 PHYSICS EXAM REVIEWER
 Equivalent capacitance:  Alternating current – current that
changes directions at a regular interval.
Total charge in a cross- section of a wire

The equivalent capacitance of a parallel

combination equals the sum of the individual Drift velocity and Current Density
capacitances. In a parallel connection the
equivalent capacitance is always greater than any  Drift velocity is the velocity associated
individual capacitance with the motion of electrons. It is
proportional to the electric field
Water flows from a higher area to a lower area
due to the difference in gravitational potential
energy. Heat, as well flows naturally if there is a
difference in temperature. This is the same with  Current density is the amount of the
charges. Charges flow when there is a potential current per unit area of a conductor. It is
difference. represented by J.
Electric Current
 Electric current or current (I) is the amount
of charge passing through
 Any point in a conductor per unit time.
 The unit of current is coulomb/sec or is
equal to ampere (A)

Charge Flow
 In the nineteenth century, electric current
was defined as the flow of positive charges
from the positive terminal to negative
terminal, this was called conventional
current
 When electron was discovered, it became
clear that the current in a metallic
conductor is usually a flow of electrons
from the negative terminal to the positive
terminal called electron current or
electron flow.
DC vs AC
 Direct current – current travels in one
direction