Unit 8 Overview: Electric Charge and Electric Force
1 min readβ’september 9, 2021
Peter Apps
AP Physics 1Β π‘
257Β resources
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Electricity is everywhere, powering our daily lives. While difficult to visualize, the basics of electricity rely on the idea of electric charge and the interactions of charged objects.
This unit introduces the concepts of electric charge and electric force. These concepts serve as the basis for developing electric circuits in Unit 9 as well as being foundational to the magnetism topics in AP Physics 2. These topics will account for ~4-5% of the AP exam questions and will take approximately 3-5 45 minute class periods to cover.
Applicable Big Ideas in Unit 8
Big Idea #1: Systems - Objects and systems have properties such as mass and charge. Systems may have an internal structure.
Big Idea #3: Force Interactions - The interactions of an object with other objects can be described by forces.
Big Idea #5: Conservation - Changes that occur as a result of interactions are constrained by conservation laws.
Key Concepts for Unit 8 π
Charge (q)
Electrostatic Force (Fe)
Conservation of Charge
Proton, Electron, Neutron
Key Equations for Electric Charge & Electric Force π