Fundamental particles are the basic building blocks of matter, carry mass and charge. Well established by Millikan in 1909. From the Bohr model, the separation between the two particles is 0.53 x 10 -10 m. At the atomic level, one may typically ignore gravitational forces. Given such strong electrical interactions, atoms tend to remain uncharged.
Matter prefers to be electrically neutral.
So what we set out to study here is the vast subject of electricity and magnetism. We begin by studying electrostatics, charges at rest. Later in the semester, we will consider moving charges and the magnetic effects that accompany them. Copyright George Watson, Univ. of Delaware, 1997.