Electric charge

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electric charge is a basic property of electrons, protons and other subatomic particles. Electrons are negatively charged while protons are positively charged. Things that are negatively charged and things that are positively charged pull on (attract) each other. This makes electrons and protons stick together to form atoms. Things that have the same charge push each other away (they repel each other). This is called the Law of Charges. It was discovered by Charles Augustin de Coulomb. The law that describes how strongly charges pull and push on each other is called Coulomb's Law.

Things that have equal numbers of electrons and protons are neutral. Things that have more electrons than protons are negatively charged, while things with fewer electrons than protons are positively charged. If a person gets a positive or negative charge, it may make the person's hairs stand up because the charges in each hair push it away from the others.

Electric charge felt through static carries usual charges between 25 thousand and 30 thousand volts. However the amps behind these volts is incredibly low and can not cause physical harm to the effected. It is said that static can carry even higher volt charges but once again the amps behind the volts is too small to cause any serious harm.