Assignment 1

John Driscoll

January 31, 2024

1.) While there are a large number of charged particle in most objects, these
objects often consist of a roughly equal number of positively and negatively
charged particle which causes the net charge of the object to be withing a fair
degree of tolerance to zero.

2.) Things in nature tend to seek equilibrium so if objects started in a state of

unequal charges overtime charges would equal out between surrounding objects.

3.) A.) No, if the cork was neutrally charged the rod could cause the negative
charged particle of the cork to generally move towards the rod while the positive
charges move away, while the cork is still neutrally charges it will be attracted
since the negative charges are on average closer to the rod. B.) yes, since the
previous argument explains the case of a neutral cork the only explanation if
the cork is repelled is that it has an opposite charge of the rod, in this case a
positive charge.

4.)In both cases yes the bodies would need to be charges as the scenario in
which charges rearrange in a neutral body only applies if there is a non-neutral
charge in the vicinity.

5.) You would need an object of known charge and then place it near the
rod, if it moves towards the rod, then the road had the same charge. if it moves
to the rod then the rod has the opposite charge.

6.) The cork is a fairly good insulator so the charge has the tendency to stay
on the foil which will then be attracted to the ceiling and y up.

7.) The dust should be considered neutrally charged, however the dust will
become "polarized" by the silk and in turn will "stick" to both objects.

8.) As the question above talks about when the car is rubbed with a cloth
is will have some (probably positive) charge which cannot easily be grounded
since the tires act as insulators. So this polarizes the dust and attracts it.

9.) As discussed above this ball will be an example of a neutral object whose
internal charges will orientate them self unevenly and will then result in a net
attractive force towards the rod.

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 10.) On a dry day the person is able to build up more charge as there are
less places for the charge to dissipate since dry air is less conductive than humid
air.

11.) Conduction is when one object comes in direct contact with a charged
object and then retains some of that charge. Induction is a bit more complex
and occurs when an object is rst polarized and then is introduced to a ground
fault allowing some of the charges to leave which results in the object to be left
with an unequal amount of positive and negative charges resulting in some net
charge.

12.) once the tissue makes contact with the charge comb, through conduc-
tion the tissue will come into a state of equilibrium with the comb where they
both share the same charge. Then since both objects have the same non-zero
charge they will repel each other.

13.) These chains acts as Mobil grounding rods which ensures that the truck
dose not build up any charge as this could result in a spark which could ignite
the gasoline vapors and then the liquid which one can imagine is not a desirable
scenario for the truck driver.

14.) Again the Humid air can act as a partial conductor which eectively
grounds everything it touches making it very dicult for an object to build up
a substantial charge.

15.) Since the cloths have been rubbed together so much they may have vari-
ous charges resulting in attraction, if the cloths are damp however the water will
act as a conduction equalizing all the charges so that there will be no attraction.

16.) Theoretically, yes it can however i imagine it would be quite dicult in

practice.
17.) We would see that the object would either be attracted or repelled
meaning it had one of two charges. We know there is no third type of charge.

18.) Your body is acting as a conductor between both objects making it

impossible for them to acquire separate charges, assuming you moisturize your
hands that is.

19.) A.) The plate certainly could be charged but not necessarily since an
instant of polarization on the plate would produce this result. B.) in this case
polarization could not explain repulsion and therefor the plate must be charged.

20.) No it would not, in fact the convention of negative vs positive is just

that; a convention. That's why we must consider the woolen relation of two
charges to tell if force is attractive or repulsive.

21.) This suggest that there is some attractive Nuclear force which is sig-
nicantly stronger than the repulsive electrostatic force between these nuclei of
the same charge.