INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

PHYSICS

[DATE]
GUJARAT PUBLIC SCHOOL
VADODARA, GUJARAT
Class: 12 (IIT
th

Ashram)
Roll no.: I- 1250
Subject: Physics
School: Gujarat Public
School, Vadodara

TOPIC

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 Coulomb’s
Law
Made by: Shivam
Patel

INDEX
Page no.
1) Certificate…………………………… 3
2) Acknowledgement…………………... 4
3) Charles-Augustin de Coulomb………. 6
4) Coulomb’s Law……………………… 7
5) Objective…………………………….. 8
6) Materials Required…………………… 8

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 7) Theory…………..…………………… 8
8) Procedure…………………………….. 14
9) Observations…………………………. 15
10) Calculations…………………………... 16
11) Result………………………………… 17
12) Precautions………………………….... 17
13) Sources of error………………………. 17
14) Bibliography…………………………... 18

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the PHYSICS project
titled “Coulomb’s Law” has been
successfully completed by Shivam Patel of
class 12th (IIT Ashram), Gujarat Public
School, Vadodara, in the partial fulfillment
by Central Board of Secondary Education

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(CBSE) leading to the award of the annual
examination of the year 2022-2033.

Internal Examiner External Examiner

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“No duty is more urgent than giving
thanks.”

I would like to express my gratitude to

my physics teacher Mr. Ravikant
Sharma, for his vital support, guidance
and encouragement without which this
project would not have come forth. I
would like to express my gratitude to
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OTHER staff of the Department of
Physics for their support during the
making of the project.

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TO ESTIMATE THE
CHARGE INDUCED
ON EACH OF THE
TWO STYROFOAM
(OR PITH) BALLS
SUSPENDED IN A
VERTICAL PLANE
BY MAKING USE
OF COULOMB’S
LAW.
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7
 Charles-Augustin de
Coulomb
Charles-Augustin de
Coulomb (14 June 1736 –
23 August 1806) was a
French military engineer and
physicist. He is best known
for developing what is now
known as Coulomb's law,
the description of the
electrostatic force of
attraction and repulsion, but
also did important work on
friction.
The SI unit of electric charge, the coulomb,
was named in his honour in 1908. In 1785, Coulomb
presented his first three reports on Electricity and
Magnetism.
The SI unit of electric charge, the coulomb,
was named in his honour in 1908. In 1785, Coulomb
presented his first three reports on Electricity and
Magnetism.
Coulomb explained the laws of
attraction and repulsion between electric charges
and magnetic poles, although he did not find any
relationship between the two phenomena. He
thought that the attraction and repulsion were due to
different kinds of fluids.

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Coulomb’s Law
Coulomb's law, or Coulomb's inverse-square law, is a
law of physics for quantifying Coulomb's force, or
electrostatic force. Electrostatic force is the amount of
force with which stationary, electrically charged
particles either repel, or attract each other. This force
and the law for quantifying it, represent one of the most
basic forms of force used in the physical sciences, and
were an essential basis to the study and development
of the theory and field of classical electromagnetism.
The law was first published in 1785 by French physicist
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb.
In its scalar form, the law is:

where k is Coulomb's constant (k ≈ 9×109 N m2 C-2), q1

and q2 are the signed magnitudes of the charges, and
the scalar r is the distance between the charges. The
force of the interaction between the charges is
attractive if the charges have opposite signs (i.e., F is
negative) and repulsive if like-signed (i.e., F is
positive).
Being an inverse-square law, the law is analogous to Isaac
Newton's inverse-square law of universal gravitation.
Coulomb's law can be used to derive Gauss's law, and vice
versa. The law has been tested extensively, and all
observations have upheld the laws of Newton.
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OBJECTIVE:-
To estimate the charge induced on each of the
two identical styrofoam (or pith) balls suspended
in a vertical plane by making use of Coulomb’s
law.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:-

 Small size identical styrofoam balls

 Physical balance or electronic balance

 Meter Scale

 Teflon thread

 Stand

 Glass rod (or plastic rod)

 Silk cloth (or wool cloth)

THEORY:-
The fundamental concept in electrostatics 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 “static” charge. This process
is called charging by friction. Surprisingly, the exact
physics of the process of charging by friction is poorly

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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 q2 and
q2(measured in coulombs), r is the separation
between the charges (measured in meters), and k is a
constant of nature (equal to 9×109 Nm2/C2 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:
 The force is inversely proportional to the square of
the distance between the charges, and is directed
along the straight line that connects their centers.

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 The force is proportional to the product of the
magnitude of the charges.
 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 that consist of negatively charged electrons moving in
quantum motion around a positively charged nucleus. The total
negative charge of the electrons is normally exactly equal to the
total positive charge of the nuclei, so the atoms (and therefore the
entire object) have no net electrical charge. When we charge a
material by friction, we are transferring some of the electrons from
one material to another.

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 Materials such as metals are conductors. Each metal atom
contributes one or two electrons that can move relatively freely
through the material. A conductor will carry an electrical current.
Other materials such as glass are insulators. Their electrons are
bound tightly and cannot move. Charge sticks on an insulator, but
does not move freely through it.

A neutral particle is not affected

by electrical forces.
Nevertheless, a charged object
will attract a neutral
macroscopic object by the
process 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
toward the negative rod. We say
that the rod has induced polarization
in the insulator, but its net charge is
still
zero.

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The polarization of charge in the insulator is small, but now it’s
positive charge is a bit closer to the negative rod, and its
negative charge is a bit farther 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 negative 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 as a whole is left with
a net positive 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
induction.
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PROCEDURE:-
 Weight the mass of each identical pith balls by
balance and note down it.
 Tie the balls with two silk or cotton threads and
suspend at a point on a stand or a rigid support.
Measure the length of threads by meter scale.
The length of threads should be equal. Note down
the length.
 Rub the glass rod with silk cloth and touch with
both balls together so that the balls acquired
equal charge.
 Suspend the balls freely and the balls stay away
a certain distance between the balls when they
become stationary. Note down the distance.
 Touch any one suspended ball with other
uncharged third ball and takes the third ball
away and repeat the step 4.
 Touch other suspended ball with other uncharged
fourth ball and takes the fourth ball away and
repeat the step 4.

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OBSERVATION:-
 Mass of each ball, (m) = g.

 Radius of each ball, (r) = mm.

 Length of each thread, (l) = cm.

s.no. : Charge Charge Distance

on ball on ball between two
A() B ( ) balls (x cm)
1)
2)
3)

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Calculations:-
By using the relation

Calculate the charge in each case.

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 RESULTS:-
The charge on each ball = C

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

SOURCES OF ERROR:-
 The balls may not be of equal size and mass.

 The distance between the balls may be measured

accurately.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-
Augustin_de_Coulomb
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law
 https://www.academia.edu/8562110/Investigator
y_project_physics
 Google Assistant
 https://www.slideshare.net/rahulkushwaha06/ph
ysics-investigatory-project-class-12
 Cortana

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