Give brief information about an electric charge. OR Write a short note on electric charge.

Explanation

An electric charge is a fundamental and an intrinsic property of a matter, like mass.
There are two types of electric charges : (1) positive charge and (2) negative charge.
By convention, the charge acquired by a glass rod (rubbed with silk cloth) is called positive charge and the charge acquired by an ebonite rod (rubbed with woollen cloth) is called negative charge.
The charge carried by a proton is positive and that carried by an electron is negative. Magnitude (value) of electric charge on a proton and on an electron is same.
Further, a body gets positively charged if it loses electrons and negatively charged if it gains electrons.
Unlike (i.e., opposite) charges attract each other and like (i.e., similar) charges repel each other. The SI unit of electric charge is the coulomb which is denoted by the letter c.
An electron possesses a negative charge of `1.6 xx 10^(-19)C` whereas a proton possesses a positive charge of `1.6 xx 10^(-19)C`.