1) Electrostatics is the branch of science that deals with the study of electric charges at rest. In chemistry, it focuses on how these stationary charges exert forces on each other, which can be either attractive or repulsive depending on whether the charges are opposite or the same. These forces are crucial for understanding how atoms and molecules interact, influencing everything from how they bond together to form compounds, to how they behave in different chemical reactions.
Electrostatics helps explain why certain molecules stick together, why some repel each other, and how the structure of molecules affects their chemical properties and reactions. This field is key to understanding many fundamental concepts in chemistry, including the arrangement of electrons around an atom and the interactions that lead to chemical bonding.