A piece of amber is charged by rubbing with a piece of fur....

A piece of amber is charged by rubbing with a piece of fur. If the net excess charge on the fur is $+8.5 \mathrm{nC}\left(+8.5 \times 10^{-9} \mathrm{C}\right),$ how many electrons were added to the amber?

Key Concepts

Electric Charge

Electric charge is a fundamental property of matter that leads to electromagnetic interactions. It is measured in coulombs (C) and can be either positive or negative. In problems involving charge transfer, understanding the amount of net charge on objects is crucial for analyzing how charges move and are redistributed during interactions such as friction or contact between materials.

Elementary Charge

The elementary charge is the smallest unit of electric charge that is observed in nature, carried by a single proton or, with opposite sign, by a single electron. Its approximate magnitude is 1.602 × 10?¹? coulombs. This constant is essential for converting between macroscopic charge measurements, like coulombs, and the number of charged particles involved in a process.

Quantization of Charge

The quantization of charge means that electric charge exists in discrete units rather than as a continuous quantity. This principle implies that the net charge on any object, when measured in coulombs, must be an integer multiple of the elementary charge. This concept is fundamental when calculating the number of electrons (or protons) needed to compose a given total electric charge.

Charge Conservation

The conservation of charge is a principle stating that the total electric charge in an isolated system remains constant over time. When charges are transferred between objects, such as in frictional charging processes, the loss of electrons (negative charge) by one object results in an equal gain of electrons by another. This concept ensures that calculations based on transferred charge accurately reflect the degree of electron movement between objects.

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