⚡ Electrostatics — charge, field, and the force that builds matter

Electrostatics in one picture: a charged rod attracts neutral paper whichever way you rub it. Charge, field and polarisation are all here, and so is the inverse-square law.

Walkthrough 1 / 5

Step 1 — a charged rod and a neutral scrap of paper. The paper carries no net charge at all.

Rod charge Q +4.0

Rod distance 11.0

Polarisability α 1.00

Field lines 14

Release paper held

E at the paper = 3.3 (arb) · d = 11.0
induced p = 3.3 · F = 0.60 · attractive

F ∝ E × (dE/dx) → always TOWARD the rod
flip Q and the force does not reverse

Animation speed 1.0×