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Electrostatic interactions) Jump to: navigation, search For a
less technical introduction, see Static electricity. Paper
strips attracted by a charged CD  Electrostatics is a branch of
physics that deals with the phenomena and properties of
stationary or slow-moving electric charges with no acceleration.
Since classical physics, it has been known that some materials
such as amber attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The
Greek word for amber, ήλεκτρον electron, was the source of the
word 'electricity'. Electrostatic phenomena arise from the
forces that electric charges exert on each other. Such forces
are described by Coulomb's law. Even though electrostatically
induced forces seem to be rather weak, the electrostatic force
between e.g. an electron and a proton, that together make up a
hydrogen atom, is about 36 orders of magnitude stronger than the
gravitational force acting between them.  There are many
examples of electrostatic phenomena, fro