Application of electrostatics
Akim A. Perez Cotto
Physics class: FISI 3172 070
Prof. Yong Jihn Kim
Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez
October/23/2022
Abstract:
To begin with, electrostatics is the study of forces between charges, as described by
coulomb’s law. The word describes itself dividing it into two parts, electro, and statics: electro
defining what electric charge is and static referring to the constant positions between the source
charges and the force. Electrostatics is one of the most applied areas in the industries and
companies and what its applications imply. There is a large scale of what applications in
electrostatics has been applied into and it is important to study how it has been applied to all those
inventions.
I) Introduction
To start off with what electrostatics means and entail, it is needed to research when it was
discovered and how scientist found out its applications. To the best of our knowledge, the Greeks
were the first to discover the notion of electrical charge over 2,600 years ago. They observed that
rubbing fossilized tree resin, or amber, with animal fur, caused it to attract dried grass. Essentially,
the Greeks had come across static electricity. The years past by and other people became
recognized for their studies in electricity. There was various scientist who were part of the
discovery of electricity and static electricity. Some of those scientists were: Pieter van
Musschenbroek (1746), Ewald Georg von Kleist (1745), Benjamin Franklin (1746), Michael
Faraday (1831), Nikola Tesla (1900s), and many others. One scientist that made his studies based
on what electricity means and what does it do when it became static was Charles Augustine de
Coulomb. He demonstrated his Coulomb’s law by saying that like charges repel each other and
unlike charges attract. He also stated that “The magnitude of the force of attraction or repulsion
between two stationary point charges (say "q1" and "q2") is directly proportional to the product
of these charges, inversely proportional to the square of the distance (r) between them and is
directed along the line joining the charges.” [2]. In simple words, if the distance between the two
charges increases the electric field and forces between the charges decrease. And so on, scientist
kept discovering and later they were bringing functionality to the field of electrostatics in our daily
lives. In this report we are going to discuss some of the inventions that made electrostatics a useful
tool for our daily work and learning experience.
II) Analysis
We are going to be mentioning three of all the applications in electrostatics starting with the:
Laser Printers
(Figure 1) [5]
Figure 1 shows a description on how it works and what does it do inside it. Basically, they
use electrical charges to attract toner particles to a transfer roll. Toner particles are pressed onto a
piece of paper, while heat and pressure from the fuser unit permanently fix the image onto the
page. They print onto a metal drum, that uses static electricity to attract the powdered toner to the
drum cylinder. This drum rolls the toner onto the paper, then is melted, and pressed onto it. In the
next figure we should a clear example of the stages of the printer:
Another invention that that is one of the most used technologies in this era are the:
Smoke Precipitators and electrostatic air cleaners:
This is an important application of electrostatics because it is found in the air cleaners. The
electrostatic part of the processes that are performed by these machines are very interesting because
they put an excess of charges on smoke, dust, pollen, and other particles in the air and then the air
passes through an oppositely charged grid that attracts and retains the charged particles.
These machines are called electrostatics precipitators and are used a lot in the industries to
remove 99 percent of the particles from stack gas emissions related with the burning of oil and
coal. Usually, home heating and air conditioning systems are very effective in removing polluting
particles, allergens, and irritants.
In the figure above we can see an image of an illustration of how an electrostatic precipitator
should work. “Air is passed through grids of opposite charge. The first grid charges airborne
particles, while the second attracts and collects them. (credit b: modification of work by
“Cmdalgleish”/Wikimedia Commons)”.
IV) Conclusion
Therefore, with the illustration of these two examples we are certain of two things:
electrostatics is a wide area where it is used in our daily lives, and it is useful and brings benefits
throughout its functionality. From the use of a drum roll and a laser to the use of a precipitator we
can see that that humans have adapted the discovery of electrostatics to many ways that benefits
us to do things we even think we were capable of. This area of study is a very interesting one that
has a lot of other applications and usages. It is important to have the hunger of knowledge and be
curios about things we use in our everyday lives. In addition to these, this are examples of how
humans can manipulate the usage of science and its areas of study. Electrostatics have shown us
to visualize that charges are present in everything we touch, see, and interact with, with this in
mind it has been shown that even charges are in a static position, are enough to make an application
of it.
V) References:
[1] Ling, S. J., Moebs, W., & Sanny, J. (2016, 6 octubre). University Physics Volume 2.
openstax.org.
https://assets.openstax.org/oscmsprodcms/media/documents/UniversityPhysicsVolume2-WEB_5eNhMSa.pdf
[2] Electrostatics: The History, The Physics and Applications. (2019). In ScienceAid. Retrieved
Oct 23, 2022, from https://scienceaid.net/Electrostatics_and_It%27s_Properties
[3] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2013, May 16). Leyden jar. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Leyden-jar
[4] Puiu, T. (2021) Who really discovered electricity? ZME Science. Available at:
https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/who-discovered-electricity-96363/ (Accessed:
October 22, 2022).
[5] How do laser printer’s work: The laser printing process. Toner Buzz. (2021, May 4).
Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.tonerbuzz.com/blog/the-laser-printingprocess/#:~:text=Laser%20printers%20use%20an%20electrical,the%20image%20onto%20the%
20page.
[6] Yip, D. M. K. (n.d.). Chapter 6 Modern technology. Revealing the magic in Everyday Life
(Phys0607). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from
https://www.physics.hku.hk/~phys0607/lectures/chap06.html
[7] Friedman, G., Druger, S. D., Kolakowska, A., Anderson, D., Bowman, D., Gasparov, L.,
LaRue, L., Lattery, M., Ludlow, R., Motl, P., Demaree, D., Ginsberg, E. S., Smith, D., Trout, J.,
Wheelock, K., Pang, T., Podolak, K., Sato, T., Ling, S. J., … Janzen, D. (2018, November 28).
3.6 applications of electrostatics. Introduction to Electricity Magnetism and Circuits. Retrieved
October 23, 2022, from https://openpress.usask.ca/physics155/chapter/3-6-applications-ofelectrostatics/