Electric Charge
Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field
Proton
A proton is a positively charged particle
Electron
An electron is a negatively charged particle
Atom
A stable configuration of protons and neutrons
- Here stable means that they stay together overtime in a bounded space
- The configuration while different between individual atoms always has the same general structure. At its center there is a collection of protons and around the protons there are atoms around it
Nucleus
The nucleus of an atom is the collection of protons centered in the atom.
Conductor
When electrons can move easily from atom to atom in a material, the material is a conductor.
Metals are Conductors
Insulator
An insulator is a material whose atoms tend to stay in their own orbitals
Element
An element is a substance entirely made up of one type of atom
Molecule
A group of 2 or more atoms
Dielectric
An insulating material that can store electric charge
Some examples of dielectrics are glass, plastic, rubber, paper, air and mica. The reason why we make the distinction is that insulators can be used to stop of the flow of electricity, but for storage of electric charge a dielectric is more useful. We also note that any highly conductive material cannot store charge (TODO: why)
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has the ability conduct electricity and also insulate, but does neither as well as their counterparts.
Carbon, geranium and silicon are semiconductors