Properties of charges

1) Conservation of charge:

Conservation of charge is property of charge which tells that total charge of an isolated system is always constant. For example when you rubbed a glass rod in silk cloth, glass rod gets positively charged and the silk cloth gets negatively charged in equal amounts.

Some negatively charged electrons transferred from glass rod to the silk cloth.

 

But there is no creation or destruction of charge it is only transferred from one place to the another.

2)Quantization of charge:

Quantization of charge is a property of charge which tells that all charges are integral multiple of a basic unit of charge of an electron or a proton. [denoted by e]

 

Suppose a body has q amount of charge, then

q=ne

where n = 0, ±1, ±2, ±3, ±4, ±5, ±6 ……………

and  e = 1.602 × 10^-19 C

n is an integer.

 

Quantization of charge tells that charge can not be fraction that is 1.5e, 1.3e,  3.7e etc.

 

Suppose a system has n₁ no of protons, n₂ no of electrons. Then the total charge of the system is

= [n₁(-e)]    +    [n₂(e)]

=  - n₁e    +    n₂e

=  (n₂- n₁) e

e is the charge of an electron of proton

 

3) Additivity of charges:

Additivity of charge is a property of charge which tells that total charge of a system is obtain simply by adding the all charges present in the system.

Suppose in a system there have charges q₁,  q₂,   q₃,   q₄,   q₅,  q₆

Then the net charge q of the system is

q = q₁ +  q₂  +   q₃  +   q₄  +   q₅  +  q₆