CAS PY 106 Study Guide - Projectile Motion, Electric Charge, Electric Field
Document Summary
Charge comes in multiples of an indivisible unit of charge, represented by the letter e. in other words, charge comes in multiples of the charge on the electron or the proton. These things have the same size charge, but the sign is different. A proton has a charge of +e, while an electron has a charge of -e. Electrons and protons are not the only things that carry charge. Other particles (positrons, for example) also carry charge in multiples of the electronic charge. Those are not going to be discussed, for the most part, in this course, however. The law of conservation of charge states that the net charge of an isolated system remains constant. Likewise, if something starts out with a certain net charge, say +100 e, it will always have +100 e unless it is allowed to interact with something external to it. Charge can be created and destroyed, but only in positive-negative pairs.
