Static electricity

Charge
As fundamental to electricity and magnetism as mass is to mechanics

Charge is a concept to quantitatively relate particles to each other, in terms of how they affect each other. Charge is represented by Q.

The basic idea - like charges repel (2 negatives or 2 positives). Opposite charges attract.

Charge is measured in terms on units called coulombs (C). A coulomb is a huge amount of charge.

The charge of a proton is tiny: 1.6 x 10^-19 C.

Similarly, the charge of an electron is the same value but negative (by definition): -1.6 x 10^-19 C

The Charge of a neutron is 0 C, or neutral.

How particles interact with each other is embodied in a physical law called Coulomb's law:

F = k Q1 Q2 / d^2

Or, the force tha exists between 2 particles is proportional to the product of charges divided by the distance squared. A proportionality constant is used to make units work out nicely.

Note that this is an inverse square law like gravitation.

The big 3 of particles are:

Proton
Neutron
Electron

However, of these onl the electron is "fundamental," meaning that it can't be further subdivided. Protons and neutrons can be broken up into quarks.

There are 6 types of quarks - up, down, top, bottom, charm, strange. The names mean nothing.

They are exotic particles which typically do not exist alone in nature.

A proton is: 2 ups and a down quark.
A neutron is: 2 downs and an up quark.

Well over 100 particles exist, but few are fundamental.