Glossary
- capacitance
- amount of charge stored per unit volt
- capacitor
- a device that stores electric charge
- defibrillator
- a machine used to provide an electrical shock to a heart attack victim's heart in order to restore the heart's normal rhythmic pattern
- dielectric
- an insulating material
- dielectric strength
- the maximum electric field above which an insulating material begins to break down and conduct
- electric potential
- potential energy per unit charge
- electron volt
- the energy given to a fundamental charge accelerated through a potential difference of one volt
- equipotential line
- a line along which the electric potential is constant
- grounding
- fixing a conductor at zero volts by connecting it to Earth or ground
- mechanical energy
- sum of the kinetic energy and potential energy of a system; this sum is a constant
- parallel plate capacitor
- two identical conducting plates separated by a distance
- polar molecule
- a molecule with inherent separation of charge
- potential difference (or voltage)
- change in potential energy of a charge moved from one point to another, divided by the charge; units of potential difference are joules per coulomb, known as volt
- scalar
- physical quantity with magnitude but no direction
- vector
- physical quantity with both magnitude and direction