Results

• Determine the variables that affect how charged bodies interact.
• Predict how charged bodies will interact.
• Describe the strength and direction of the electric field around a charged body.
• Use free-body diagrams and vector addition to help explain the interactions.

There are many different processes and phenomena that emit electromagnetic radiation. Humans have taken advantage of many of these processes to develop technologies that use electromagnetic radiation.

In this unit you will learn:

• About the turning effect of forces
• Turning effects are called moments
• Understand that regular and irregular shaped objects have a centre of gravity
• An objects centre of gravity determines if it is in a stable, neutral, or unstable equilibrium

The beauty of a coral reef, the warm radiance of sunshine, the sting of sunburn, the X-ray revealing a broken bone, even microwave popcorn—all are brought to us by electromagnetic waves. The list of the various types of electromagnetic waves, ranging from radio transmission waves to nuclear gamma-ray (γ-ray) emissions, is interesting in itself.

Even more intriguing is that all of these different phenomena are manifestations of the same thing—electromagnetic waves (see Figure 15.1). What are electromagnetic waves? How are they created, and how do they travel? How can we understand their widely varying properties? What is the relationship between electric and magnetic effects? These and other questions will be explored.

Photoelectric materials emit electrons when they absorb light of a high-enough frequency.

Electric charge comes in two varieties, which we call positive and negative. Like charges repel each other, and unlike charges attract each other. Thus, two positive charges repel each other, as do two negative charges. A positive charge and a negative charge attract each other.

How do we know there are two types of electric charge? When various materials are rubbed together in controlled ways, certain combinations of materials always result in a net charge of one type on one material and a net charge of the opposite type on the other material. By convention, we call one type of charge positive and the other type negative.