PART-I: CHAPTERWISE COURSE CONTENTS
PART-II: CHAPTERWISE COURSE CONTENTS

1.1 Introduction

All of us have the experience of seeing a spark or hearing a crackle when we take off our synthetic clothes or sweaters, particularly in dry weather. Have you ever tried to find any explanation for this phenomenon? Another common example of electric discharge is the lightning that we see in the sky during thunderstorms. We also experience the sensation of an electric shock either while opening the door of a car or holding the iron bar of a bus after sliding from our seats. The reason for these experiences is the discharge of electric charges through our body, which were accumulated due to rubbing of insulating surfaces. You might have also heard that this is due to generation of static electricity. This is precisely the topic we are going to discuss in this and the next chapter. Static means anything that does not move or change with time.

Electrostatics deals with the study of forces, fields, and potentials arising from static charges.

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