Charge Density - Free, Bound and Total Charge

Free, Bound and Total Charge

In dielectric materials, the total charge of an object can separated into "free" and "bound" charges.

Bound charges set up electric dipoles in response to an applied electric field E, and polarize other nearby dipoles tending to line them up, the net accumulation of charge from the orientation of the dipoles is the bound charge. They are called bound because they cannot be removed: in the dielectric material the charges are the electrons bound to the nuclei.

Free charges are the excess charges which can move into electrostatic equilibrium, i.e. when the charges are not moving and the resultant electric field is independent of time, or constitute electric currents.

Read more about this topic:  Charge Density

Famous quotes containing the words bound, total and/or charge:

    Why should I? Someone is bound to do it for me.
    Anonymous Rickshaw Driver, Bangladesh. Quoted in Daily Telegraph (London, February 4, 1988)

    Parenthood always comes as a shock. Postpartum blues? Postpartum panic is more like it. We set out to have a baby; what we get is a total take-over of our lives.
    Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)

    Your last words as you led the charge up the beach were, “Okay, men, let’s show ‘em whose beach this is!”
    Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981)