6/6/2016

2016-17
CLASS-XII
PHYSICS INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

name |SEC-‘’, ROLL NO.-

 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that _____________ of Class- XII , section- D

has successfully completed the physics investigatory project
entitled ,

“To estimate the charge induced on each one of the two

identical styro foam balls or pith balls suspended in a vertical
plane by making use of Coulomb’s law.”
This report is the result of her endeavours and
research. It is finalized under our guidance and supervision in the
academic year 2016-2017.

[MRS. SARASWATI SANKARAN] [MRS. ANURADHA RAKSHIT]

Vice Principal ,PGT physics Principal

Department of physics Delhi Public School,Kalinga

Delhi Public School, Kalinga

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the accomplishment of this project successfully

many people have bestowed on me their blessings and

their immense support.

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude

to my teacher Mrs. Saraswati Sankaran as well as our

principal Mrs. Anuradha Rakshit who gave me the

golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the

topic “To estimate thecharge induced on each one

of the two identical styro foam balls or pith balls
suspended in a vertical planeby making use of
Coulomb’s law.” which also helped me in doing a lot
of
research and I came to know about so many new
things. Secondly I would also like to thank my parents
and my friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the given time.

Last but not the least I would like to thank all the
people who had helped me directly or indirectly during
thecompletion of this project.

name

CLASS-XII
 To estimate the
charge induced on
each one of the two
identical styro foam
balls or pith balls
suspended in a
vertical plane by
making use of
Coulomb’s law
 INTRODUCTION
Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of
amber, could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers. Thales of Miletus
made a series of observations on static electricity around 600 BC, from which he believed
that friction rendered amber magnetic, in contrast to minerals such as magnetite, which
needed no rubbing. Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic
effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. Electricity
would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for millennia until 1600, when the
English scientist William Gilbert made a careful study of electricity and magnetism,
distinguishing the lodestone effect from static electricity produced by rubbing amber. He
coined the New Latin word electricus ("of amber" or "like amber", from ἤλεκτρον
[elektron], the Greek word for "amber") to refer to the property of attracting small objects
after being rubbed. This association gave rise to the English words "electric" and "electricity",
which made their first appearance in print in Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica of
1646.

Early investigators of the 18th century who suspected that the electrical force
diminished with distance as the force of gravity did (i.e., as the inverse square of the
distance) included Daniel Bornoulli and Alessandro Volta, both of whom measured the force
between plates of a capacitor, and Franz Aeipinus who supposed the inverse-square law in
1758. Based on experiments with electrically charged spheres, Joseph Priestly of England
was among the first to propose that electrical force followed an inverse square law, similar
to Newton’s law of universal gravitation. However, he did not generalize or elaborate on
this. In 1767, he conjectured that the force between charges varied as the inverse square of
the distance.

In 1769, Scottish physicist John Robison announced that, according to his

measurements, the force of repulsion between two spheres with charges of the same sign
varied as x−2.06. In the early 1770s, the dependence of the force between charged bodies upon
both distance and charge had already been discovered, but not published, by Henry
Cavendish of England.

Finally, in 1785, the French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb published his first
three reports of electricity and magnetism where he stated his law. This publication was
essential to the development of the theory of electromagnetism.He
used a torsion balance to study the repulsion and attraction
forces of charged particles, and determined that the
magnitude of the electric force between two point charges
is directly proportional to the product of the charges and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them.The torsion balance consists of a bar
suspended from its middle by a thin fiber. The fiber acts as
a very weak torsion spring. In Coulomb's experiment, the
torsion balance was an insulating rod with a metal-
coated ball attached to one end, suspended
by a silk thread. The ball was charged with a known charge of static electricity, and a
second charged ball of the same polarity was brought near it. The two charged balls repelled
one another, twisting the fiber through a certain angle, which could be read from a scale on
the instrument. By knowing how much force it took to twist the fiber through a given angle,
Coulomb was able to calculate the force between the balls and derive his inverse-square
proportionality law.
AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT
To estimate the charge induced on each one of the
two identical styro foam balls or pith balls
suspended in a vertical plane by making use of
Coulomb’s law.

APPARATUS REQUIRED
Small size identical balls (pitch or soft plastic)
Physical balance or electrical balance
Half meter scale
Glass rod
Cotton thread
Silk cloth
Small stand
 THEORY
The fundamental concept of electrostatics is electric charge. We are all familiar with the
fact that rubbing two materials together –for example, a rubber comb on cat fur-
produces a “static” charge. The process is called charging by friction. Surprisingly, the
exact physics of the process of charging by friction is poorly understood. However, it is
known that the making and breaking of contact between the two materials transfers the
charge.

The charged particles which make up the universe come in three kinds : positive,
negative and neutral. Neutral particles do not interact with electrical forces . Charged
particles exert electrical and magnetic forces on one another, but if the charges are
stationary ,the mutual force is very simple in form and is given by coulomb’s law

Where F is the electrical force between any two stationary charged particles with
charges q1 and q2(measured in coulombs), r is the separation distance between the
charges (measured in meters) , and k is a constant of nature (equal to
8.9875517873681764×109 N m2 C−2 or 9×109 N m2 C−2 in SI units)

The study of the Coulomb forces among arrangements of stationary charged particles is
called electrostatics. Coulomb’s Law describes three properties of the electrical force:

1. Force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges
and is directed along the straight line that connects their centers.
2. The forces is proportional to the products of the magnitude of the charges.
3. Two particles of the same charge exert a repulsive force on each other, and two
particles of opposite charge exert an attractive 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 of atom that consists
of negatively charged electrons moving in quantum motion around a positively
charged nucleus. The total negative charge of the electrons is equal to the total
positive charge . So the atoms as well as the entire object don’t have net electrical
charge. If we charge something by friction , there only occurs the transfer of
charges from one to another object.
A neutral particle is not affected by electrical forces. A charged object can attract
neutral object by the method of electrical polarization. For example, if a
negatively 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
negative rod, and the positive nuclei will be attracted slightly towards the
negative rod. There occurs induced polarization but net charge is always zero.

The polarization of charge in the insulator is small but now its positive charge is a
little closer to the negatively charged rod, and its negative charge is a bit far away.
Thus the positive charge is attracted to the rod more strongly than the negative charge
is repelled, and there is an overall net attraction.

If the negatively charged 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 negative rod with a net positive charge. The
conductor has been polarized and will now be attracted to the charged rod.

Now if we connect a conducting wire or any other conducting 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 has been charged without actually being
touched with the charged rod. This process is called charging by induction.

Let the force between two stationary c h a rg e s be F

F α q 1q 2

F α 1/r 2

From the above two expressions,

F = k q 1 q 2 /r 2

=1/4πε0 q 1 q 2 /r 2

Where k = 9 x 10 9 N m 2 / C 2

An d i s called absolute
permittivity of free space or
va c u u m =8.854 x 10-12 C2 /N/ m2

Let the two identical pith balls (B1

and B2) of mass ‘m’ are hanged
from strings of length ‘l’ each .

When the two balls are given charge q1 and q2 respectively the electrostatic force acting between
them will be ,

F = k q 1 q 2 /r 2

B e c a u s e of t h i s force, th ey are separated by a distance ‘r’ a s shown i n the figure .

Force a c t i ng on ball B1

(i)Weight of ball B1 , W= mg

(same a s th at of B2)

T h i s c a n be resolved i n two components mgcos0 and

mgsin0 .

Co m p o ne nt m g s i n 0 i s the restoring component.

In state of equilibrium

Electrostatic force = m g si n0

O r , F = k q 1q 2/ r 2 = m g s i n 0

From O B C , s i n 0 =r/2l

k q 1 q 2 / r 2 = m g r/2l

If both the identical pith balls have same

charge on t h e m , t h e n q1=q2=q

K q2 / r 2 = mgr /2l

q= √mgr 3 /2kl

By putting the va lu e s of ‘m’ , ‘r’ , ‘l’, ‘g’ a n d ‘k’ we c a n e s t i m a te the charge on the two pith
identically c h a rge d pith balls.
 PROCEDURE
1.Measure the mass (m) of each of the two
identical pith balls using a physical
balance.
2.Hang the two balls from a rigid support using
light silk or cotton threads of same length ‘l’.
3.Take a glass rod and rub it with a silk cloth to
induce charge on the rod. Now
touch the glass rod with both the
pith balls together so that equal
charge is induced on both the
balls.
4.When left freely, the two balls will repel each
other and when they are at rest separated away
from each other , measure the distance
between them.
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, again
measure the distance between the two hanging
balls.
 OBSERVATIONS
Mass of the pith balls m= 01 gm.
Radius of the ball a= 0.1 cm.
Length of thread l= 9.5 cm.
Sl.no. Charge on Ball Charge on Ball Distance
B1 B2 between the two
balls (in cm)

01

02

03

04
 CALCULATIONS

Charge on the pith ball q =

√mgr3/2kl
 CONCLUSION
The charge on pith balls
in different cases
are________ C.

1. The suspended balls should not

be touched by any conducting
body.
2. Rub the glass rod properly with
silk rod to produce more
charge.
3. Weight the mass of the balls
accurately.
 BIBILOGRAPHY
Internet, Wikipedia , Google, NCERT physics book class-12