1

Solutions to Problem Set 1 Physics 201b January 13, 2010.

1. (i) To produce a sphere with
1
8
C you need to rst let the two spheres touch each
other so that the charges redistribute equally on the two spheres. Now each sphere has
a charge of
1
2
C and grounding one of the spheres discharges it again. Repeating this
two more times leaves you with the two spheres charged with
1
8
C each.
(ii) If you cannot ground anything you will need three initially discharged spheres to
get
1
8
C. Every time you let the charged sphere touch a discharged sphere, its charge
reduces to half the value.
(iii) To get
5
16
C, you simply need to let the sphere with
1
8
C touch the sphere with
1
2
C (the one that rst touched the fully charged sphere). This will get you a charge
of
1
2
(
1
8
C +
1
2
C) =
5
16
C.
2. See gure.
3. The symmetry of the problem tells us immediately that the force on the proton is zero.
For each electron that attracts the proton there is an electron on the opposite side
canceling out the force of the rst. Removing any one electron has the eect that one
electron is without a pair and thus the resulting force on the proton (in the direction
of the electron) simply is
F =
e
2
4
0
r
2
= 2.3 10
28
N . (1)
2
4. (i) Let
f(x) = (1 + x)
p
and x
0
= 0. (2)
We then have
df
dx

x
0
= p(1 + x
0
)
p1
= p (3)
d
2
f
dx
2

x
0
= p(p 1)(1 + x
0
)
p2
= p(p 1) (4)
d
3
f
dx
3

x
0
= p(p 1)(p 2)(1 + x
0
)
p3
= p(p 1)(p 2), (5)
and nally
f(x) = f(0) +
df
dx

x=0
x +
1
2!
d
2
f
dx
2

x=0
x
2
+
1
3!
d
3
f
dx
3

x=0
x
3
+ ...
= f(x) = 1 + px +
p(p 1)x
2
2!
+
p(p 1)(p 2)x
3
3!
+ ... (6)
(ii) Let
g(x) = ln(1 + x) and x
0
= 0. (7)
Then
dg
dx

x
0
=
1
1 + x
0
= 1 (8)
d
2
g
dx
2

x
0
=
1
(1 + x
0
)
2
= 1 (9)
d
3
g
dx
3

x
0
=
2
(1 + x
0
)
3
= 2 . (10)
We nally nd
g(x) = g(0) +
dg
dx

x=0
x +
1
2!
d
2
g
dx
2

x=0
x
2
+
1
3!
d
3
g
dx
3

x=0
x
3
+ ...
= g(x) = x
x
2
2
+
x
3
3
+ ... (11)
5. (1)Letus think about the balance of the forces to the left particle. Noting the change
in the length of each spring is a/2, we get
F
tot
= k (
a
2
)
q
2
4
0
(2a)
2
= 0. (12)
Solving for k, we get
k =
q
2
8
0
a
3
. (13)
3
(2)In the same way, noting that the change in the length of each spring is a/4, we get
the balance equation for the left particle.
F
tot
= k (
a
4
) +
q
2
4
0
(
a
2
)
2
= 0. (14)
Solving for k, we get
k =
4q
2

0
a
3
. (15)
(3) By applying the result of the problem 4, and using the result from part (1), we get
F
tot
= k(a/2 + x)
1
4
0
q
2
(2a x)
2
(16)
= ka/2 kx
1
4
0
q
2
4a
2
1
(1
x
2a
)
2
(17)
= ka/2 kx
q
2
16
0
a
2
(1 + 2
x
2a
+ ) (18)
= (k +
q
2
16
0
a
3
)x (19)
k
eff
x. (20)
where k
eff
is the eective force constant in the presence of the electric force (we use
k
eff
to avoid confusion with the electric constant k
e
). From the relation =
_
k
eff
/m,
we get
=

(k +
q
2
16
0
a
3
)/m =

3q
2
16m
0
a
3
(21)
6. (i) The force of each unit charge q at the corners exerted on the charge q in the center
is |F| = k
e
q
2
r
2
, where r is the distance between the center charge and the corner charge
(here r =

2). As seen in the picture below, forces from charges at opposite corners
cancel each other, resulting in a zero net force.
4
(ii) Lets write out explicitly the force vectors for this case. As always, according
to Coulombs law, the force from the corner charge i pointing towards the center is
F
i
= F r
i
where F = k
e
q
2
r
2
and r
i
is the unit vector pointing from the charge i towards
the center charge.
For convenience, let the origin be at the position of the center charge and let the corner
charges have coordinates (x, y, z). Then r
i
=
1
r
(xi+yj+zk), where r =

x
2
+ y
2
+ z
2
.
So when we displace the center charge by an amout in the +z direction, then r
i
=
1
r
(1 i + 1j + k) and r =

2 +
2
and the sign depends on which charge we
consider. From symmetry considerations we immediately see that the resulting force
will have a component in the z-direction only.
4

i=1
F
i
= 4 k
e
q
2
r
3
k = 4 k
e
q
2
(2 +
2
)
3/2
k
= 4 k
e
q
2
2
3/2
(1 3/4
2
+ ...) k
(23)
where for the last equality we have used the Taylor expansion found in problem 2.
Neglecting all terms of order 2 or higher in we get
F =
4

i=1
F
i
= (

2 k
e
q
2
) k. (24)
So we nally nd the spring constant k to be
k =

2 k
e
q
2
. (25)
(iii) From classical mechanics we know that the angular frequency of a spring-mass
system is simply =
_
k
m
, so here
5
=

2 k
e
q
2
m
. (26)
(iv) To determine the speed with which the charge will cross the origin, we use energy
conservation:
E
kin
= E
pot
1
2
mv
2
=
1
2
kz
2
=
1
2

2 k
e
q
2

2
. (27)
Thus
v =

2 k
e
q
2
m
= . (28)
(v) Using the same approach as in part (ii) we can write out the forces explicitly as:
F
1
= k
e
q
2
r
3
1
((x + ) i + yj) = k
e
q
2
r
3
1
((1 ) i +j)
F
2
= k
e
q
2
r
3
2
((1 ) i +j)
F
3
= k
e
q
2
r
3
2
((1 ) i j)
F
4
= k
e
q
2
r
3
1
((1 ) i j), (29)
where r
1
=
_
(x + )
2
+ y
2
=
_
(1 + )
2
+ 1 and r
2
=
_
(1 )
2
+ 1.
Taylor expansion of
1
r
3
1
and
1
r
3
2
up to rst order in gives:
1
r
3
1
=
1
((1 + )
2
+ 1)
3/2

1
2

3
4

1
r
3
2
=
1
((1 )
2
+ 1)
3/2

1
2

2
+
3
4

2
. (30)
As expected by symmetry, when summing up all four forces only a component in the
x-direction remains:
F =
4

i=1
F
i
= k
e
q
2
2
_
1
r
3
2
+
1
r
3
1
_
i
6
eqn.(30)
k
e
q
2
2
_
(1 )
_
1
2

2
+
3
4

_
+ (1 )
_
1
2

3
4

_
_
i
= k
e
q
2
_
3

2

2

_
i
= k
e
q
2
1

2
i. (31)
Thus we have established that a displacement in the positive x-direction will cause a
force also in the positive x-direction and the system is unstable. The corresponding
spring constant is
k = k
e
q
2
1

2
=
q
2
4
0

2
. (32)
7. The electric eld at x of a rod extending from a to +a which carries a charge Q
uniformely distributed on it is
E
rod
=
k
e
Q
(x a)(x + a)
=
k
e
Q
x
2
a
2
, (33)
where the eld vector is pointing toward x.
The electric eld at x of a charge Q located at +2a on the x-axis is
E
point
=
k
e
Q
(2a x)
2
, (34)
where the eld vector is pointing toward x.
The total eld for a testcharge inbetween then is
E =
k
e
Q
x
2
a
2

k
e
Q
(2a x)
2
. (35)
Setting E
!
= 0:
=(2a x)
2
= x
2
a
2
=4xa + 4a
2
= a
2
=4xa = 5a
2
=x =
5
4
a . (36)
8. The electric eld of an innite line charge is
E =

2R
0
(37)
7
where R is the distance to the electron. The centripetal force is F = m
v
2
R
. Equating
the centripetal and coulomb forces yields
m
v
2
R
=
e
2R
0
= v
2
=
e/m
2
0

= v =

e/m
2
0

= v = 7.97 10
7
m
s
. (38)
9. First let us calculate the y-component of the electric eld.
E
y
= E j = k
e
_

y=0
dq
r
2
(r j)
= k
e
_

y=0
dy
r
2
_
y
r
_
= k
e
_

y=0
y
r
3
dy = k
e
_

y=0
y
(a
2
+ y
2
)
3/2
dy
=
k
e
a
. (39)
We could also explicitly calculate the x-component by integrating the appropriate
function. But it is much simpler to note that the x-component of the eld of an
innite rod is twice the x-component of the eld of the semi-innite rod. Thus
E
x
=
1
2
E
x,
=
k
e
a
. (40)
8
10. The problem is symmetric about x, thus there is no eld component in the x-direction.
The eld in the y-direction is:
E
y
= E j = k
e
_

=0
dq
r
2
(e
r
j)
= k
e
_

=0
ad
a
2
(sin())
=
k
e

a
_

=0
sin() d
=
k
e

a
( cos() cos(0))
=
2k
e

a
. (41)