ATOM AND ITS FORCES
Basic Electrical Theory
Summary
The important information contained in this chapter is summarized below.
Forces Around Atoms Summary
Electrostatic Force - force that holds an electron in orbit around a nucleus
Electrostatic Field - force acting between charged objects that causes
them to repel or attract
Potential Difference - measures how large the electrostatic force is
between two charged objects. According to Coulomb’s Law, charged
bodies attract or repel each other with a force that is directly proportional
to the product of their charges and is inversely proportional to the square
of the distance between them.
Electromotive Force (EMF) - sum of the potential differences of all
charged particles in an electrostatic field
Ion Charge - dependent on the loss or gain of free electrons (if an atom
gains an electron - negative ion charge; if an atom loses an electron -
positive ion charge)
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