Unit 8 Overview: Electric Charge and Electric Force

As of 2021, College Board only tests Units 1-7 on the AP Physics 1 exam. This page's content will not be tested on the exam, but we kept it online for you all as a resource.

Electricity is everywhere, powering our daily lives. While difficult to visualize, the basics of electricity rely on the idea of electric charge and the interactions of charged objects.

Image courtesy of Giphy.

This unit introduces the concepts of electric charge and electric force. These concepts serve as the basis for developing electric circuits in Unit 9 as well as being foundational to the magnetism topics in AP Physics 2. These topics will account for ~4-5% of the AP exam questions and will take approximately 3-5 45 minute class periods to cover.

Applicable Big Ideas in Unit 8

• Big Idea #1: Systems - Objects and systems have properties such as mass and charge. Systems may have an internal structure.
• Big Idea #3: Force Interactions - The interactions of an object with other objects can be described by forces.
• Big Idea #5: Conservation - Changes that occur as a result of interactions are constrained by conservation laws.

Key Concepts for Unit 8 🔑

• Charge (q)
• Electrostatic Force (Fe)
• Conservation of Charge
• Proton, Electron, Neutron

Key Equations for Electric Charge & Electric Force 🗝

🎥Watch: AP Physics 1 - Unit 8 Streams