Science Vocabulary Part I

The building block of matter; contains a nucleus with protons and neutrons, which is surrounded by electrons

• molecule

• atom

• compound

• ion

a configuration of charge with positive and negative charge separated by a short distance

• electric dipole

• magnetic dipole

• monopole

• quadrupole

- the amount of energy per charge that a particle will experience traveling between two points; otherwise known as voltage

• electric potential

• current

• resistance

• capacitance

a type of material that allows electric charge to flow freely through it; the opposite of an insulator

• conductor

• insulator

• semiconductor

• dielectric

a vector field created by a charged particle; tells other charges how to interact with it and points in the direction in which a charge will be accelerated at that position

• electric field

• magnetic field

• gravitational field

• nuclear field

the amount of charge flow, measured in amps (coulombs per second)

• electric current

• voltage

• resistance

• power

amount of electric field passing through some area

• electric field flux

• electric field intensity

• electric field strength

• electric field gradient

a device that accelerates electrons and then magnetically deflects them onto different parts of a screen to create an image

• cathode ray tube

• LED display

• LCD screen

• plasma display

an equation describing the electric force between objects with electric charge

• Coulomb’s law

• Newton’s law of gravitation

• Ohm’s law

• Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction

refers to the separation of positive and negative charges within a neutral object; allows the object to feel electric forces

• electric polarization

• electric conduction

• electric induction

• electric discharge