Electrostatic Energy of Discrete Charges

Highlights of the activity

1. This kinesthetic activity is designed to help students conceptualize the energy required to move charges in an electric field.
2. Students, using their bodies to represent charges, walk into the classroom one by one and find the required energy for each student to get to their seat.
3. The whole class discussion focuses on the calculation of work, path independence, and summation notation as a shorter way to calculate the total energy required.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

The kinesthetic nature of this activity makes the computation memorable.

Reflections

• Reflections from the original implementation.

• Reflections from "official" adapters/adopters.

• Reflections from the general public.

Instructor's Guide

• Wiki version