Electric Fields: Lab Manual

Department of Physics and Astronomy

York University
Contents

1 Introduction and Theory 3

1.1 Electric Forces and Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2 Extracting Unknown Variable Values From Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.3 Electric Field Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.4 Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Measurements of the Electric Force 6

2.1 Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.2 Watch the Video (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.3 Experimental Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.4 Data Collection and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3 Qualitative Evaluation of Electric Fields 10

3.1 Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.2 Watch the Video (Optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.3 Experimental Setup, Data Collection and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4 Questions 11

5 Prepare your report 11

A Uncertainties 12

B Language in Scientific Papers and Reports 13

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1 Introduction and Theory

1.1 Electric Forces and Fields

Electric charges produce electric fields around them. Any other electric charges that enter
this field would feel a force applied on them. Although every charge produces an electric
field, the charge that is used to measure the strength of another charge’s field by evaluating
its force is called a test charge. The relation between the electric field and the electric force
is:
F
E= (1)
q
where F is the force and q is the test charge. Like any other force, electric force is a vector,
meaning it has a magnitude and a direction. When the two charges have the same sign
(whether it is positive or negative), the force repels them. When the charges are opposite,
the force attracts them. The relationship between charge magnitudes q and Q, distance
between charges r, and force F is:
qQ
|F | = k 2 (2)
r
Note that equation (2) gives the magnitude of the force. Direction can be determined from
geometry and remembering that same charges repel and opposite charges attract.

In equation (2), k is the Coulomb constant, which must be included to properly scale the
proportions. How could this constant be measured experimentally? An electric field cannot
be directly measured, but electric force can be. Rearranging equation (2) gives:

|F |r2
k= (3)
qQ

1.2 Extracting Unknown Variable Values From Plots

A physical experiment could be set up to evaluate equation (3). Two known charges could
be brought together at a known distance, and have the force measured between them. Then,
all the variables needed to calculate k would be known. But what if you do not know that F
is proportional to the inverse square of r? Imagine that you are the first scientist to discover
that electric charges experience a force between them. You might have already noticed that
if you increase one of the two charges, force is increased linearly. This can be represented as:

F ∝q (4)

F ∝Q (5)

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Since at this point in the experiment, you would have already discovered how q and Q affect
F , they can now be treated as constants. You would then be able to keep them constant
when conducting further experiments.

You might have noticed that as you vary

the distance between the two charges, force
changes as well, and so you would want to
know exactly what the relationship between
F and r is. This can be evaluated by system-
atically varying distance and measuring force
at every location. Once data is accumulated,
you would plot the values and evaluate what
shape the plot has. There are of course too
many plot shapes to show all of them in this
manual, but figure 1 shows 4 simple plot
shapes for the same range of x values. You
might notice that your data most closely re-
sembles the shape of the y = 1/x2 plot, but
stretched vertically. You would then recog- Figure 1: 4 different plot shapes represented
nize that the relationship between F and r for the same range of x values
is:
1
F ∝ 2 (6)
r

Combining equations (4) - (6):

qQ
F ∝ (7)
r2

Equation (7) means that F is linearly proportional to q, linearly proportional to Q,

and proportional to the inverse square of r. In order to replace the "∝" symbol with "=", a
proportionality constant needs to be found. Comparing equation (7) to equation (2) indicated
that this proportionality constant is exactly the Coulomb constant k.

To extract k from the measured data, it must be compared to a plot shaped like:
a
y= (8)
x2
where a is the constant that stretches the equation y = 1/x2 to fit your data. Excel is one
of many programs that can perform a fit on a set of data. The parameter a that Excel will
calculate for you is exactly equal to kqQ. Since in this hypothetical experiment q and Q are
known, k can be easily extracted from a using the following equation:
a
k= (9)
qQ

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A calculation of uncertainty on k is based on the proper propagating of errors from all the
measured quantities - q, Q, F , and r. You may refer to Appendix A, lab manuals from the
Fall labs or any other resource you may wish to use to remind yourself how uncertainties are
determined for measured values.

1.3 Electric Field Lines

Electric fields are vector fields. This means that the value of
the electric field at any location in space has a magnitude and a
direction. To visualize this, the convention is to use field lines.
For example, the field lines for a point charge are shown in the
figure to the right. Field lines are represented by arrows that
point away from positive charges and towards negative charges.
Even without the charge labeled, the direction of the arrows in
the figure indicate that this is a positive point charge.

Field line arrows indicate the direction of the electric field.

Electric field line density between the arrows indicates strength
of the field. This density is determined by how many field lines Figure 2: Electric field lines
are squeezed into any given space. The point charge shown in are represented as arrows
Figure 2 has denser field lines in the space closer to the charge. pointing away from a pos-
Further from the point charge, field lines are less dense because itive point charge
they are further apart. This signifies a weaker electric field. If
the charge in the figure triples, the number of arrows would
have to triple as well, and so the spacing becomes tighter by a factor of 1/3.

You might wonder - where are these arrows pointing to? Electric field lines can stretch
to infinity, weakening with distance. However, if another charge is nearby, the fields of the
two charges combine and distort the lines. Lines that start at a positive charge would like to
stretch over to negative charges, but would like to stretch away from other positive charges.
Section 3 of this lab explores some of the shapes that the field lines acquire in the presence
of two charges.

1.4 Learning Outcomes

• Visualize field lines

• Be able to use the field and force equations

• Understand the relationship between field and force

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2 Measurements of the Electric Force

In this experiment, you will use an online simulation to measure electrical forces between two
charges.

2.1 Apparatus
• Computer with access to Microsoft Excel (Excel is part of Office365 which is available
to York University students free of charge)

• Computer or mobile device with access to internet

2.2 Watch the Video (Optional)

Watch Video 1 on your eClass quiz module on how to use the simulations.

2.3 Experimental Setup

All the work must be recorded in the Excel template provided for this lab.

Step 1 Open the list of laboratory values that is available on the second page of the "Electric
Fields Lab" quiz module on eClass, which can only be unlocked by completing the
prelab. Once you record your values, you do not have to keep the eClass page open.
Note: you may close the quiz, the course page, and the browser whenever you wish and
be able to return to this quiz module at a later time.

Step 2 Download and open the Excel workbook from the second page of the quiz on eClass.
All work that you do on this lab should be recorded on this workbook, which will be
submitted to the "Electric Fields Lab" quiz module upon completion.
*BONUS MARK: for a 0.5 grade point bonus on your lab (overall lab grade
can be increased up to 10/10), use full sentences for every question that
asks for a comment of any type. Refer to Appendix B for inspiration on
how to build your answers.

Step 3 Copy your values as given on eClass to your Excel workbook.

Step 4 Launch Coulomb’s Law PhET simulation (click here).

Step 5 Select atomic scale.

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Step 6 Confirm that "Force Values" is selected and "Scientific Notation" is not selected.

Step 7 Set Charge 1 to the value specified in the eClass "Lab 1 - Electric Field Lab" module.
Set Charge 2 to 0. Record the force on Charge 2, including the unit and direction.
Comment in the spreadsheet on why this is the value.

Step 8 Set Charge 2 to the value specified in the eClass "Lab 1 - Electric Field Lab" module.
Record the force on Charge 2, including the unit and direction. Comment on why this
is the direction.

Step 9 Change the sign of Charge 2 to positive, but keep its magnitude the same. Record
the force on Charge 2, including the unit and direction. Comment on why this is the
direction.

Step 10 Change the signs on both charges to negative. Record the force on Charge 2,
including the unit and direction. Comment on why this is the direction.

Step 11 Reset the signs of charges to reflect the values given on eClass.

Step 12 Move Charge 1 to 0 pm position on the ruler. Move Charge 2 to the starting
position as specified on eClass. Record the force on Charge 2, including the unit and
direction.

Step 13 Slide Charge 2 on the ruler until the force on Charge 2 is 14 of the force found in
Step 12. Record the position of Charge 2. How many times is the distance in this step
bigger than the starting distance?

Step 14 Slide Charge 2 on the ruler until the force on Charge 2 is 16

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of the force found in
Step 12. Record the position of Charge 2. How many times is the distance in this step
bigger than the starting distance?

Step 15 Although this simulation does not involve physical instrumentation, the measured
values are still given with some quantifiable uncertainty. You might notice in the
simulation when you slide the charges on the ruler, positions snap to closest 1 pm.
However, assume that the smallest increment on the ruler is 0.1 pm. Notice that force
is displayed with 9 decimal places. What is the uncertainty associated with the distance
(δx) and the force (δF ) measurements? Assume the charge value were measured by a
tool with a digital display that gives 2 decimal places. What are their uncertainties
(δq) and (δQ)? (Feel free to refer to the appendix in this lab manual, fall lab manuals
or search online for a reminder on how to get these values, if needed)

2.4 Data Collection and Analysis

Step 1 Move Charge 2 back to its initial position. Starting from this initial position listed
on eClass, move Charge 2 along the ruler in 10 pm increments until you reach the end

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 of the ruler. At each step, including the initial position, record both the position and
the force on Charge 2 in Table 1. This should result in a total of 9 measurements.

Replace "Table Title" with an appropriate title. Replace "Headings" with the appro-
priate heading for each measured value. Since in this experiment, all force values have
the same uncertainty and all distance values have the same uncertainty, an elegant way
to represent the uncertainty for both is to include them in the heading. Therefore, the
heading should specify the value measured, unit of the measured value, and uncertainty.
For example for measuring length (symbolized by L) with a ruler that has 1 mm as the
smallest increment, your uncertainty would be 0.0005 meters, and your column title
would be
Length
(L ± 0.0005 m)
If text in any cell appears outside of it, select that cell and click "Wrap Text" (in Excel:
Home tab → Alignment group → Wrap Text).

Increase the size of any row or column to accommodate your text. Replace "Data"
with a properly populated data set from your simulated experiment. Since you are
measuring force as a function of distance, distance should be in the first column, and
force in the second column. You may also have a "Run Number" column inserted before
the distance column, although that is not necessary.

Step 2 Create a plot of your data. To do so, select all the cells containing your data by
click-and-dragging your table values. All of your distance and force values should be
selected. In Excel, go to Insert → Charts → Scatter P lot → Scatter. Make sure X
and Y axes are distance and force, respectively.

A proper chart must have an informative title that describes what is being plotted.
Both of the axes must be labelled. To insert these, select the chart by clicking on it.
In the Excel tabs at the top of the screen go to Chart Design → Add Chart Element.
In the list of elements, select all items you would like to display on the chart.

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Step 3 Perform a fit of your data. To do so go back to Add Chart Element, just like in Step
2. Hover over T rendline and select M oreT rendlineOptions. In the T rendlineOptions
section, select T rendline Options again, and choose P ower as the shape of the fit (or,
as Excel calls it, the trendline). Make sure Display Equation on chart and Display R −
squared value on chart are selected. You should now see the fitted line appear on your
chart.

The purpose of the R-squared value is to qualify how good the fit is. The closer this
value is to 1, the better the fit. You can evaluate this yourself if you select other fit
types and seeing how when the fitted line is visually not aligning well to the data, the
R value is much lower than 1.
Insert your properly formatted chart with your data, correct labels, and the power
trendline into the appropriate blue space on your report.

Step 4 From the fitted line equation generated by Excel, extract the value of k and give its
units. Report the value of k in the original units (e for charge, N for force, and pm for
distance). In a sentence or two, explain how you got this value.

Step 5 The uncertainty of the value k is calculated by propagating uncertainties using the
differential method (if you wish to refresh your memory, you might find the fall lab
manual useful). Starting with equation (3) and using absolute values:

|F |r2
k= (10)
|qQ|

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 and following the uncertainty calculation rules for multiplication, division, and expo-
nentiation cases, the final uncertainty calculation becomes:
δk δF δr δq δQ
= +2 + + (11)
k |F | r |q| |Q|

(note that the uncertainty δx is positive for every variable x). Calculate δk and show
all your work in the Excel workbook. You may type it out into Excel or write it out
on paper or any graphic software and insert a picture into the space provided.

Step 6 Report the final value in the proper format (such as: the length was found to be
L = 1.53 m ± 0.005 m).

3 Qualitative Evaluation of Electric Fields

In this experiment, you will use an online simulation to visualize electric field lines between
two charges.

3.1 Apparatus
• Computer with access to Microsoft Excel (Excel is part of Office365 which is available
to York University students free of charge)

• Computer or mobile device with access to internet

3.2 Watch the Video (Optional)

Watch Video 2 on your eClass quiz module on how to use the simulations.

3.3 Experimental Setup, Data Collection and Analysis

All the work must be recorded in the Excel template provided for this lab.

Step 1 Launch Academo’s Electric field line simulation (click here)

Step 2 Set charge 1 to 1. Set charge 2 to 0. Describe the shape of field lines.

Step 3 Set charge 1 to 1. Set charge 2 to 1. Describe the shape of field lines.

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Step 4 Set charge 1 to 1. Set charge 2 to -1. Describe the shape of field lines.

Step 5 Compare the field line densities around both charges. Record in the Excel workbook
and specify whether the arrows point to or away from each charge.

Step 6 Set charge 1 to 2.

Step 7 Compare the field line densities around both charges. Comment if they are different
from Step 5. Record in the Excel workbook and specify whether the arrows point to
or away from each charge.

Step 8 Which charge has a higher magnitude? Which charge has a higher electric field line
density? Answer in the Excel workbook.

4 Questions

Answer the following questions in the Excel template sheet.

1. In a system of two point charges, as distance increases, how does the force change?

2. In a system of two point charges, what happens to the force when one of the charges is
zero?

3. Based on this experiment, do opposite charges attract or repel?

4. How is field line density related to charge strength?

5 Prepare your report

Upload the filled out Excel workbook document to the quiz module as your lab report sub-
mission. Submit the quiz.

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A Uncertainties

A single set of measurements is not considered a good representation of a physics phe-

nomenon. The reason for this lies in the uncertainties of the values measured. Every time
the same value is measured, a slightly different value can be recorded. Let us now review the
concept of uncertainties in measurements.

For example, imagine a physics student measuring an object that is precisely 1.54573 m
long using a measuring tape that has 1 mm as the smallest increment. The student might
write down that they saw 1.545 m. Next time they measure the same object, they write
down 1.546 m. The variations in measurements are not errors; they are a consequence of
the measuring tool having a limit on its precision. What the student can do is take many
measurements and average the result. More likely than not, the average would be 1.546 m.
However, this is not the true measurement of our imaginary object, which is 1.54573 m long.

To report the measured length of the object in a way that admits that the true value can
only be known with some limited precision, uncertainty is used. For measurements with tools
that have a smallest increment (such as markings on a ruler), uncertainty is 12 of the smallest
increment. For a ruler having a smallest increment of 1 mm, uncertainty is ±0.5 mm or
±0.0005 m. For measurements with tools that report measurements with a certain number
of decimal points (such as any instrument with a digital display), uncertainty is 21 of the last
decimal point. For a digital measuring tape that shows 1.546 m as the measurement (which
has 3 decimal points), uncertainty is ±0.0005 m (which is 12 of the third decimal point). The
student can then report that the value they measured was 1.546 m ± 0.0005 m, which means
that the true value lies somewhere between 1.5455 m and 1.5465 m. Our imaginary object is
1.54573 m, which indeed falls into the range of values reported.

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B Language in Scientific Papers and Reports

Language used in scientific reports is usually simple and direct. Majority of science globally
is written in English. Therefore, there is an incentive to keep the text accessible for everyone -
regardless of what their first language is.

In theory, because simple language is preferred, lab reports should be easier to write.
However, students who are not used to scientific writing usually find this a difficult exercise
because they are used to more expressive language used in novels, news articles, etc. If
you can relate to this, you might find this section useful. Although the list below is not
exhaustive, you might find it helpful:

• Keep your sentences short and avoid run-on sentences (e.g.: this lab manual).
• Use proper grammar and spelling.
• Choose whether you prefer first person point of view (e.g.: I found that when I varied
x...) or third person (e.g.: When x was varied, y increased linearly). Both are accept-
able. However, once you choose your point of view, you must remain consistent and
use the same point of view throughout the entire text.
• Avoid metaphors and flowery language. Plain language is preferred.
• Use past tense to describe what happened in the experiment. E.g.:

– I observed that...
– I plotted the data on a scatter plot.
– When charge 2 was doubled, the field line density was observed to...

Use present tense to describe universal truths and facts. E.g.:

– When a ball is thrown up, it reaches a maximum and falls back down.
– Most plants need access to water and sunlight.
• Do not purposefully avoid repetitive language. It is acceptable to say "When energy
was increased by a factor of 2, speed was observed to increase by a factor of 4. When
energy was increased by a factor of 3, speed was observed to increase by a factor of 9.
When energy was increased by a factor of 4, speed was observed to increase by a factor
of 16."
• Use numerals instead of words, even for numbers smaller than 10. For most non-
scientific writing, numbers smaller than 10 must be spelled out. However, in scientific
writing for technical fields (such as Math, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, etc.), num-
bers should be written as numerals, such as "When energy was increased by a factor
of 2, speed was observed to increase by a factor of 4".

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