10 March 2022

Physics 102
Questions Accompanying Lecture 01

Static Electricity
positively charged (+) ↓ negatively charged (−) ↓
1. What is electrostatics, electrostatic electricity? Wool (No charge) Wood (Small negative charge)
Cotton Amber
2. What is the origin of positive and negative charge types? Paper (Small positive charge) Sealing wax
Aluminum Polystyrene
3. What is the triboelectric series, and what is its significance? Silk Rubber balloon
Cat's fur Resins
Lead Hard rubber
4. Describe two situations in which the triboelectric series Mica Sulfur
would be useful. Quartz Acetate, Rayon
Rabbit's fur Synthetic rubber
5. At right is triboelectric series table. Explain how to use it. Leather Polyester
Acrylic, Lucite Styrene and polystyrene
(Table is copied with modification from the Wikipedia page.
Glass Plastic wrap
Table is ordered downwards in increasing ability to develop Nylon, dry skin Polyethylene (like Scotch tape)
charge. Items shown in the same row are a mere Hair, oily skin Polypropylene
coincidence.) Polyurethane foam Vinyl (PVC)
Teflon

6. You are in a fabric shop, perhaps on a street in the Ankara district of Ulus, Çıkrıkçılar Yokuşu (Çıkrıkçılar Slope).
With you to the fabric shop you have brought a piece of Amber, a sheet of glass, a sheet of Plexiglas, a common
rod of silicone and (and!) a Braun electroscope, like the one I demonstrated in class. Design and Describe a
procedure to establish your own Triboelectric Series.

7. How does electrostatic induction work?

8. Define: Electrostatic Induction.

9. In class I showed a very large sewing needle hung at the end of a thread. When I brought an electrostatically
charged object near it, the needle became attracted to the object. Why?! What became of the charges in the
needle?

10. Similar to the needle on a string I performed the same test with silicone rubber hung on a string. Recall the
outcome: nothing. The stick of silicone did not do anything. Why? (Hint: think of the difference between the
needle and the silicone.)

11. What is the difference between a conductor and insulator? Note the observation: All of the materials on which I
generated triboelectric static, such as the big acrylic lamp ball, were insulators. Had they been conductors, how
would that have changed their behavior during the demonstrations?

12. Describe and explain how an electrophorus works.

13. Describe Coulomb’s law and the key relationships.

14. Explain the workings of the Kelvin Water Drop

machine. Why does the water spread just before the
charge collapses through a spark?

15. Explain the workings of the Wimshurst machine.

16. What’s the total net charge of the Earth?

17. Why does charge spread out on a conductor? What are the key words involved in the understanding?

18. Describe how charge spreads out on a conductor. Answer question similarly for an insulator.
Static Electricity
19. How does a lightning rod work, in all its spectacular details?
20. Is it easier to collect electric charge from a pot’s handles than from the side of the pot? Why? And, what about
collecting charge from inside the pot versus collecting charge from outside the pot; would anything be different,
and how?
21. Why do charges tend to congregate around surfaces with sharp curves?
22. What is an electric field? How does it relate to the concept of voltage?
23. In class I employed a device similar to that at right. Inside I placed various
items charged with static electricity. While the item was inside the voltage
was measured between the two cages with a common voltmeter. This
voltage was used to indicate different charges on the cages. (A) Suppose the
inner cage was positive, while the outer cage was negative. What does that
tell us about the static charge on item placed in the middle? (B) Suppose the
inner cage was negative, while the outer cage was positive. What do we
interpret now? (C) Suppose I placed the charge between the inner and outer
cages? What would you expect? (D) Back to cases A and B, what does zero
voltage on the voltmeter mean?

The electric field is defined by how a quantity of charge (q) experiences a force
under the effect of other charges. Those other charges can be anywhere (or everywhere!), can be any amount, near
and far. So we say that other charge (collectively) produces an Electric Field, E. The electric field in turn places q
under a force: F = qE. If free to move, q would accelerate. At any rate, energy (work) is exchanged just moving it, or
just allowing it to be moved.

If you could find a way to move a charge without changing the magnitude |𝑭| (even if the direction changes), all
those places, together form what is called the equipotential surfaces. (Note: in the textbook, they use the term
“Equipotential Lines.” See Page 675 of our textbook, Openstax Physics. “Lines” is the natural term when one is
discussing a diagram on 2D paper. But the charges and their electric field lines exist in 3D space. So lines become—in
reality—surfaces.) Equipotential surfaces are also surfaces of equal force; and if you moved any charge from
anywhere on that surface to far away, infinity, it would take the same amount of work (energy) —Relative to ∞.
That is what is meant by equal-potential, Equipotential.

Imagine in your backpack is a large rock. You’re on the ground floor of the building. So, say the rock has zero
potential energy, PE. (If you’re fastidious in your mental imagery, I expect you know this isn’t quite the truth.) Now
take the rock up to the top floor. Or the ISS. (Your choice.) No matter: the rock’s potential energy changed from one
known PE position to another. Similarly, imagine moving (not the rock but) a backpack of charge between two
points, each with known PE. This is the potential difference to which we refer when speaking about the difference in
voltages. (See Section 19.1 in the textbook.) Except: voltage difference is the potential energy difference per amount
of charge, as in [joules]/[Coulomb].

24. Charge is transferred to a cooking pot, as was done in the videos. If someone claimed the whole pot was at
equipotential, what does s/he mean?

25. Can different equipotential lines cross? Explain.

26. (A) Explain the observation the electric field is zero inside metals. (A) Now: does this mean there cannot be an
electric field inside metals? Be the answer yes, no, depends: explain the conditions for each.

27. In a video we saw an electroscope covered by a wire cage. Used like it is, we call it a Faraday Cage. An
electrostatically charged rod was brought nearby. The electroscope did not react. (A) Why? (B) How would the
electroscope react if some of the rod’s charge was deposited on the cage? (C) Suppose the cage was a metal
cooking pot. Suppose it was made of aluminum foil. What, for each, would be different?

28. What is an electric field? How does it relate to the concept of voltage?

29. Voltages are always measured between two points. Why?

30. Explain how an electrostatic precipitator works. Suppose you designed one for personal use, say, on one’s office
desk. Your design follows those that use electrified wires. Explain your design choices for the wire.

31. How is it an object can have a very high voltage (read: a very high potential difference relative ground) even
though very little charge may be on the object? Here is a gedanken experiment to think about the idea: imagine
a giant ball with just a teaspoon of charge (i.e., a tiny amount). Imagine the ball slowly shrinking, from a large to
a small radius. As the diameter shrinks, what becomes of the forces among the charges, what becomes of the
energy stored with the body of charge?

32. Once neon light bulbs were among the most common front panel lights.
(Now most are LED based. However, if you have a common extension
socket with a switch, or grup priz, like the one at right, the lights inside are
likely neon.) Neon bulbs are glass envelopes with two electrodes and a tiny
amount of low-pressure neon gas. They are lit by applying a sufficient
voltage between the electrodes, the potential at which the gas ionizes. The
voltage changes based on the device design (and who you ask—see this
web page: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/PhilipYeung.shtml), but is
generally about 80 volts (80 V). (The middle image at right courtesy
Wikipedia.)

Now that you know everything about neon lights, would you be surprised if I
told you one could flash a neon bulb with the static generated on the plastic ball
I use in class? (See the image at right.) I tried it for myself, charging
the plastic ball with a piece of leather, then bringing the ball close to
one of the neon’s leads. In the picture, one lead is attached to a
magnet (used only as a clamp, but otherwise has nothing to do with
this question), the other sticking out into the air. There was no need
to even touch the lead; the neon bulb lit well regardless, despite the
air gap.

The questions: (A) What does that say about the potential of the
charge on the plastic (relative ground)? (B) Suppose one of the
neon’s leads was attached to ground. What question(s) would you
want to ask me so that you could make a rough estimate of the
overall voltage between the tube and ground just before the neon
lit up? (C) Then, with that information, how could you (roughly)
estimate the potential difference between the plastic ball and
ground.

Note: I frequently mention the “plastic ball”. But it can be anything

that can collect static charge and, as importantly, from which the
charge can be transferred—as through a spark!

The following are copied from OpenStax College Physics, Chapter

18, Electric Charge and Electric Field

31 [1]. There are very large numbers of charged particles in most

objects. Why, then, don’t most objects exhibit static electricity?

32 [2]. Why do most objects tend to contain nearly equal numbers of positive and negative charges?

33 [3]. An eccentric inventor attempts to levitate by first placing a large negative charge on himself and then putting
a large positive charge on the ceiling of his workshop. Instead, while attempting to place a large negative charge on
himself, his clothes fly off. Explain.

34 [4]. If you have charged an electroscope by contact with a positively charged object, describe how you could use
it to determine the charge of other objects. Specifically, what would the leaves of the electroscope do if other
charged objects were brought near its knob?
35 [5]. When a glass rod is rubbed with silk, it becomes positive and the silk becomes negative—yet both attract
dust. Does the dust have a third type of charge that is attracted to both positive and negative? Explain.

36 [6]. Why does a car always attract dust right after it is polished? (Note that car wax and car tires are insulators.)

37 [7]. Describe how a positively charged object can be used to give another object a negative charge. What is the
name of this process?

38 [8]. What is grounding? What effect does it have on a charged conductor? On a charged insulator?

39 [11]. Given the polar character of water molecules, explain how ions in the air form nucleation centers for rain
droplets.