Lab 2. Coulomb\'s Law The electrostatic forces which you observed in Lab 1I were

Question

Lab 2. Coulomb's Law The electrostatic forces which you observed in Lab 1I were studied in detail by Coulomb in 1784. His experiments resulted in the empirical law named after him. It describes the forces that two small, particle-like, charged objects exert on each other, forces that depend on the charges, qi and qo, as well as the distance r between the charged particles. See Fig. 1. To attempt to explore Coulomb's Law using physical apparatus is fraught with difficulty, especially in south Florida. For this reason, you will be using a computer simulation instead the magnitudes of q, q2 Figure I OBJECTIVES . Determine how the forces on the particles depend on their charges. .Determine how the forces on the particles depend on the distance between them. Determine whether Newton's 3nd law is applicable to these forces. . Obtain a value for the Coulomb law constant. MATERIALS computer PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS 1. Why do you think that exploring Coulomb's law with physical apparatus is "fraught with difficulty, especially in south Florida?" 2. How would you expect the forces to depend on the magnitude of either charge? 3. How would you expect the forces to depend on the distance between the particles? Would it increase or decrease as the distance increases? 4. Do the signs of the charges play a role? Explain. 5. Do you think that the magnitude of the force on the larger charge is bigger than that on the smaller charge? PROCEDURE 1. Open simulation "Electrostatic" in folder Lab02. 2. Learn how to move the charges, change their magnitude and sign, and change the distance between them. Note qualitatively how the forces are affected by these changes. You can also move the ruler. It's 10 m long, so the main divisions are s spacing of the grid lines. at 1 m, the same as the

Explanation / Answer

(1) It is difficult to study Coulomb's law with physical apparatus because humidity affects the physical apparatus.

(2) The force is directly proportional to the product of the two charges.

(3) The force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges. Hence, increasing the distance would decrease the force between the charges.

(4) The signs of the charges decide the direction of the force.

(5) The magnitude of force on both the charges is the same.

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