Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Electric Charge |
Electric ChargeNoun1. The quantity of unbalanced electricity in a body (either positive or negative) and construed as an excess or deficiency of electrons; "the battery needed a fresh charge". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definitions |
Electrical Engineering | The property which an atom, molecule or other body is said to have when it has gained(negative charge)or lost(positive charge)electrons, so that it repels other bodies having the same charge, attracts those having the opposite charge, and is capable of being acted upon by forces when placed in an electric field. Source: European Union. (references) |
Space | That which causes electrons and ions to attract each other, and to repel particles of the same kind. The electric charge of electrons is called "negative" (-) and that of ions "positive" (+). Materials such as glass, fur and cloth acquire an electric charge by rubbing against each other, a process which tears electrons off one substance and attaches it to the other. Electric charges (+) and (-) may also be separated by a chemical process, as in an electric battery. About Ben Franklin's role in studying and naming electrical charges, click here. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of matter. Matter that possesses a charge is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields. The interaction between charge and an electromagnetic field is the source of one of the four fundamental forces.
Electric charge can be directly measured with an electrometer. Its unit is the coulomb. Observed particles have charges which are integer multiples of the elementary charge which is a fundamental physical constant. Quarks are believed to have charges which are multiples of one-third the electric charge. The discrete nature of electric charge was demonstrated by Robert Millikan in his oil-drop experiment.
Charge was discovered by the Ancient Greeks who found that rubbing fur on various substances, such as amber, would build up an electric charge imbalance. The Greeks noted that the charged amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair. The Greeks also noted that if they rubbed the amber for long enough, they could even get a spark to jump. The word electricity derives from ηλεκτρον, the Greek word for amber.
By the 18th century, the study of electricity had become popular. One of the foremost experts was a man named Benjamin Franklin. Franklin imagined electricity as being a type of invisible fluid present in all matter. He posited that rubbing insulating surfaces together caused this fluid to change location, and that a flow of this fluid constitutes an electric current. He also posited that when matter contained too little of the fluid it was "negatively" charged, and when it had an excess it was "positively" charged. Arbitrarily (or for a reason that was not recorded) he identified the term "positive" with the type of charge acquired by a glass rod rubbed with silk, and "negative" with that acquired by an amber rod rubbed with fur.
We now know that Franklin's model was too simple. Matter is actually composed of two kinds of electricity: particles called protons which carry a charge of positive electricity, and particles called electrons which carry a charge of negative electricity. Rather than one possible electric current there are many: a flow of negative particles, or a flow of positive particles, or a flow of both negative and positive particles in opposite directions. To reduce this complexity, electrical workers still use Franklin's convention and they imagine that electric current (known as conventional current) is a flow of exclusively positive particles. The conventional current simplifes electrical concepts and calculations, but it ignores the fact that within some conductors (electrolytes, semiconductors, and plasma,) two or more species of electric charges flow in opposite directions. The flow direction for Conventional Current is also backwards compared to the actual electron drift taking place during electric currents in metals.History
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Electric charge."
Synonym: Electric ChargeSynonym: charge (n). (additional references) |
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Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "electric charge"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Danish | ladningstilstand (charge, electricity), ladning (blasting charge, cargo, charge, cycle, electricity, explosive charge, freight, load, loading, round, round of charges). (various references) | |
Dutch | lading (batch, blasting charge, burden, cargo, cart load, charge, cycle, electricity, explosive charge, fill, filling, forebody, heat, ladle, load, loading, melt, mucking, payload, power-loading, round, round of charges, stock, suspended load, vehicle). (various references) | |
Finnish | varaus (allocation, charge, electricity, proviso, reservation, reserve, seizing, seizure), sähköinen varaus (charge, electricity), sähkö (charge, electricity). (various references) | |
French | charge (electric load, electricity). (various references) | |
German | Ladungszustand (charge, electricity), Ladung (batch, blasting charge, burden, cargo, cart load, charge, citation, cycle, electricity, explosive charge, freight, lading, load, loading, notice of originating motion, originating summons, petition, round, round of charges, shipment, stowage, summon, summons, writ of summons). (various references) | |
Greek | φορτίο (batch, brew, burden, cargo, cart load, charge, demand, electricity, freight, jag, lading, load, loading, onus, press head, shipment). (various references) | |
Italian | carica (appointment, batch, blasting charge, brail, buntline, burden, charge, charging, concentration, electricity, explosive charge, fill, filler, filling, kiln load, load, loading, loads, mould weight, office, position, press head, stock, weight, winding). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 荷電 , 電荷 (charge). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | で"か (charge, electrification, family tradition, heirloom, HisHighness, last resort, rural cottage, trump card, Your Highness), かで" (consumer electronics, email, family history, melon field or patch, miscommunication, mistaken account, slash-and-burn agriculture, telephone call, telephone conversation). (various references) | |
Manx | lught lectragh (charge). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | electricay argechay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | carga (batch, blasting charge, brew, bulk, burden, cargo, charge, charging, cloud-burst, concentration, cycle, demand, down grade, electricity, explosive charge, fare, feeding, fill, filler, filling, freight, freighter, job, lading, load, loading, refill, round, round of charges, rush, stock, task, weight). (various references) | |
Spanish | carga (barge, batch, blasting charge, brew, buck, bulk, burden, cargo, charge, charging, concentration, cycle, demand, electric load, electricity, encumbrance, explosive charge, extender, extender pigment, feeding, fetch, fill, filler, filling, freight, imposition, liability, load, loading, on-loading, onus, press head, round, round of charges, shipment, stock, tax, to charge, weight). (various references) | |
Swedish | elektrisk laddning (charge, electricity). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-c-c-e-e-e-g-h-i-l-r-r-t" | |
-4 letters: chelicerae. | |
-5 letters: chelicera, earthlier, heretical, lethargic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)45 6C 65 63 74 72 69 63 43 68 61 72 67 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000101 01101100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01110010 01101001 01100011 00100000 01000011 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100111 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)E l e c t r i c   C h a r g e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0045 006C 0065 0063 0074 0072 0069 0063 0043 0068 0061 0072 0067 0065 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)39787169868475692377467847371 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Anagrams 7. Orthography 8. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
