Project Report 2023-24

CLASS-XII
PHYSICS (042)
Project Name: Estimation of Charge Induced on each of the two identical
Styro foam balls suspended in a vertical plane by making use of Coulomb's law

DELHI PRIVATE SCHOOL, AJMAN

Submitted By:

Student Name : Sharank Santhosh Kumar

Register No :
Grade/Section : XII-M
Date : 20.08.2023

Signature of Internal Examiner:

Signature of External Examiner:

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the accomplishment of this project successfully, many people have best owned upon

me their blessings and the heart pledged support, this time I am utilizing to thank all the

people who have been concerned with this project.

Primarily I would thank God for being able to complete this project with success. Then I

would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Principal Dr. VISHAL KATARIA, Head

Mistress Mrs. Khadija T.K and Supervisor Mrs. Anu Thomas for providing me with facilities

required to do my project. I am highly indebted to my Physics Teacher Mrs. Oshin D Souza

for her valuable guidance which has promoted my efforts in all the stages of this project

work.

Then I would like to thank my parents and friends who have helped me with their valuable

suggestions and guidance has been very helpful in various phases of the completion of

the project.

Last but not the least I would like to thank my classmates who have helped me a lot.

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 DELHI PRIVATE
SCHOOL
AJMAN
GRADE: XII M
Register No: _____________________
Subject: _________________
Certified to be the bonafide project report submitted by
Master/Miss ___________________________________________
during the academic year 2023 – 2024

Signature of the Principal: ______________

Teacher In-charge: _______________

Submitted for the Practical Examination on _____________ held at

DELHI PRIVATE SCHOOL, AJMAN.

DATE: ____________ External Examiner: _________

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 INDEX

1. OBJECTIVE
2. INTRODUCTION
. Coulomb’s Law
. Electric Charge
3. EXPERIMENT
. Aim
. Material Required
. Theory
. Procedure
. Observation
. Result
. Precautions
. Sources of Error
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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 OBJECTIVE

To es&mate the charge induced on each

of the two iden&cal Styro foam (or pith)
balls suspended in a ver&cal plane by
making use of Coulomb's law.

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 INTRODUCTION
Coulomb’s Law:

Coulomb graduated in November 1761 from École royale du

génie de Mézières. Over the next twenty years he was posted to
a variety of locaDons where he was involved in engineering -
structural, forDficaDons, soil mechanics, as well as other fields of
engineering. His first posDng was to Brest but in February 1764
he was sent to MarDnique, in the West Indies, where he was put
in charge of building the new Fort Bourbon and this task
occupied him unDl June 1772. On his return to France, Coulomb
was sent to Bouchain. However, he now began to write
important works on applied mechanics, and he presented his
first work to the Académie des Sciences in Paris in 1773. In 1779
Coulomb was sent to Rochefort to collaborate with the Marquis
de Montalembert in construcDng a fort made enDrely from wood
near Ile d'Aix. During his period at Rochefort, Coulomb carried
on his research into mechanics, using the shipyards in Rochefort
as laboratories for his experiments. Upon his return to France,
with the rank of Captain, he was employed at La Rochelle, the
Isle of Aix and Cherbourg. He discovered an inverse relaDonship
of the force between electric charges and the square of its
distance, later named a\er him as Coulomb's law. In 1785
AugusDne de Coulomb invesDgated the a_racDve and repulsive
forces between charged objects, experimentally formulaDng

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what is now referred to as Coulomb’s Law: The magnitude of the
electric force that a parDcle exerts on another is directly
proporDonal to the product of their charges and inversely
proporDonal to the square of the distance between them=
MathemaDcally, this electrostaDc F acDng on two charged
parDcles (q1, q2) is expressed as where r is the separaDon
distance between the objects and k is a
constant of proporDonality, called the Coulomb constant, k =
9×109 Nm2/C2. This formula gives us the magnitude of the force
as well as direcDon by noDng a posiDve force as a_racDve and a
negaDve force as repulsive. NoDng that like charges repel each
other and opposite charges a_racDng each other, Coulomb
measured the force between the objects, small metal coated
balls, by using a torsion balance like the balance used to measure
gravitaDonal force.

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 INTRODUCTION

Electrical Charge:

The experiments on pith balls suggested that there are two kinds
of electrificaDon, and we find that (i) like charges repel and (ii)
unlike charges a_ract each other. The experiments also
demonstrated that the charges are transferred from the rods to
the pith balls on contact. It is said that the pith balls are
electrified or are charged by contact. The property which
differenDates the two kinds of charges is called the polarity of
charge.

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 EXPERIMENT

Aim:
To esDmate the charge induced on each of the two idenDcal
Styro foam (or pith) balls suspended in a verDcal plane by
making use of coulomb’s law.

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 Materials Required:
• Small size idenDcal balls (pitch or so\ plasDc)
• Physical balance or electronic balance
• Half meter Scale
• Co_on thread
• Stand
• Glass rod (or plasDc rod)
• Silk cloth (or woolen cloth)

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 Theory:
The fundamental concept in electrostaDcs is electrical charge.
We are all familiar with the fact that rubbing two materials
together for example, a rubber comb on cat fur produces a
“staDc” charge. This process is called charging by fricDon.
Surprisingly, the exact physics of the process of charging by
fricDon is poorly understood. However, it is known that the
making and breaking of contact between the two materials
transfers the charge.
The charged parDcles which make up the universe come in three
kinds: posiDve, negaDve, and neutral. Neutral parDcles do not
interact with electrical forces. Charged parDcles exert electrical
and magneDc forces on one another, but if the charges are
staDonary, the mutual force is very simple in form and is given
by Coulomb's Law:

where F is the electrical force between any two staDonary

charged parDcles with charges q1 and q2(measured in
coulombs), r is the separaDon between the charges (measured
in meters), and k is a constant of nature (equal to 9×10^9
Nm^2/C^2 in SI units). The study of the Coulomb forces among
arrangements of staDonary charged parDcles is called

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electrostaDcs. Coulomb's Law describes three properDes of the
electrical force:

1. The force is inversely proporDonal to the square of the

distance between the charges, and is directed along the straight
line that connects their centers.
2. The force is proporDonal to the product of the magnitude of
the charges.
3. Two parDcles of the same charge exert a repulsive force on
each other, and two parDcles of opposite charge exert an
a_racDve force on each other.

Most of the common objects we deal with in the macroscopic

(human-sized) world are electrically neutral. They are composed
of atoms that consist of negaDvely charged electrons moving in
quantum moDon around a posiDvely charged nucleus. The total
negaDve charge of the electrons is normally exactly equal to the
total posiDve charge of the nuclei, so the atoms (and therefore
the enDre object) have no net electrical charge. When we charge
a material by fricDon, we are transferring some of the electrons
from one material to another.

Materials such as metals are conductors. Each metal atom

contributes one or two electrons that can move relaDvely freely
through the material. A conductor will carry an electrical current.
Other materials such as glass are insulators. Their electrons are
bound Dghtly and cannot move. Charge sDcks on an insulator but
does not move freely through it.

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A neutral parDcle is not affected by electrical forces.
Nevertheless, a charged object will a_ract a neutral macroscopic
object by the process of electrical polarizaDon. For example, if a
negaDvely charged rod is brought close to an isolated, neutral
insulator, the electrons in the atoms of the insulator will be
pushed slightly away from the negaDve rod, and the posiDve
nuclei will be a_racted slightly toward the negaDve rod. We say
that the rod has induced polarizaDon in the insulator, but its net
charge is sDll zero.
The polarizaDon of charge in the insulator is small, but now its
posiDve charge is a bit closer to the negaDve rod, and its negaDve
charge is a bit farther away. Thus, the posiDve charge is a_racted
to the rod more strongly than the negaDve charge is repelled,
and there is an overall net a_racDon.

If the negaDve rod is brought near an isolated, neutral

conductor, the conductor will also be polarized. In the
conductor, electrons are free to move through the material, and
some of them are repelled over to the opposite surface of the
conductor, leaving the surface near the negaDve rod with a net
posiDve charge. The conductor has been polarized and will now
be a_racted to the charged rod.

Now if we connect a conducDng wire or any other conducDng

material from the polarized conductor to the ground, we provide
a <path= through which the electrons can move. Electrons will
actually move along this path to the ground. If the wire or path
is subsequently disconnected, the conductor as a whole is le\

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with a net posiDve charge. The conductor has been charged
without actually being touched with the charged rod, and its
charge is opposite that of the rod. This procedure is called
charging by inducDon.

Let the force between two stationary charges be F

The Weight of the ball:

W=mg

The restoring force on each ball

From the diagram above in triangle ABC,

Let the charge on each ball be,

q1=q2=q

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Then at equlilibrium,

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 PROCEDURE:
1. Measure the mass (m) of each of the two idenDcal pith balls
using a physical balance.
2. Hang the two balls from a rigid support using light silk or
co_on threads of same length ‘l’.
3. Rub the glass Tod silk cloth to induce charge on it. Now touch
the glass rod with both the pith balls together so that equal
charge is induced on both the balls.
4. When le\ freely, the two balls will repel each other. Measure
the distance between the balls when are at rest. Note down the
distance.
5. To change the charge on ball, take third uncharged ball touch
it to any one of the two balls and take the third ball away, and
repeat step 4.
6. Take other uncharged suspended with other uncharged 4th
ball and take the 4th ball away and repeat step 4.

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 OBSERVATIONS:
Mass of the pith balls m= 200 gm.
Radius of the ball a = 0.2 cm.
Length of thread l = 100 cm.

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 CALCULATION:

We know q = mgx3/2lk

Were k= 8.99 x 109 N

Using this formula calculate q in each case.

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 RESULT:

The charge on ball B1= __________C

The charge on ball B2=___________C

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 PRECAUTIONS:
1. The suspended balls should not be touched by any
conducDng body.
2. Rub the glass rod properly with the silk cloth to produce
more charge.
3. Weight the mass of the balls accurately.

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 SOURCES OF ERROR:
1. The balls may not be of equal size and mass.
2. The distance between the balls may be measured
accurately.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

h#p://www.ncert.nic.in

h#ps://www.wikipedia.org

h#ps://www.quora.com

h#ps://www.scribd.com
Chemmicalland.com

Books.google.co.in

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