Week 1:

Charge, Coulomb’s Law

Physics 204B
Paul Arpin

Note that during the quiz you will be graded on your work, explanation and justification.
The “right” answer will not earn much credit if the work is not justified. Be sure that you
understand how to set the problems up. Typically I look for things like:
• Clear, detailed figures, with labeled and defined quantities. Force/field vectors drawn
and labeled. A list of known values and clear identification of what you are trying to
find.
• That you begin with fundamental equations and add pertinent information to solve the
problems.
For the quantitative problems I recommend following as much of the Dynamics Worksheets
as is appropriate to the problem.
1. A negatively charged electroscope has separated leaves.
(a) Suppose you bring a negatively charged rod close to the top of the electroscope,
but not touching. How will the leaves respond? Use charge diagrams and words to
explain.
(b) How will the leaves respond if you bring a positively charged rod close to the top of
the electroscope, but not touching? Use both charge diagrams and words to explain.

Solution:
(a) The negatively charged rod will repel the negative charges on the top of the
electroscope, pushing more negative charge down onto the leaves. The leaves
will separate more.
 (b) The positively charged rod will attract more negative charges to the top of
the electroscope. As they depart from the leaves, the leaves will move closer
together.
+ ++ + +

2. You have two identical neutral metal spheres on wood stands.

(a) Devise a procedure for charging the spheres so that they will have like charges of
exactly equal magnitude.
(b) Devise a procedure for charging the spheres so that they will have opposite charges
of exactly equal magnitude.

Solution:
(a) Charging two neutral spheres with like charges of exactly equal magnitude can be
achieved through the following six steps. (i) Bring a charged rod (say, negative)
near a neutral metal sphere. (ii) Touch the neutral sphere with the negatively
charged rod, so that the rod-sphere system has a net negative charge. (iii) Move
the rod away from the sphere. The sphere is now negatively charged. (iv) Bring
this negatively charged sphere close to the second neutral sphere. (v) Touch
these two spheres. The excess negative charge is distributed evenly over the two
spheres. (vi) Separate the spheres. The excess charge will have the same sign as
the charge on the charging rod and will be evenly distributed between the two
spheres.

(b) Charging two neutral spheres with opposite charges of equal magnitude can be
done through the following four steps. (i) Touch the two neutral metal spheres
together. (ii) Bring a charged rod (say, positive) close (but not touching) to one
of the spheres (say, the left sphere). Note that the two spheres are still touching
and the net charge on the pair is zero. The right sphere has an excess positive
charge of exactly the same magnitude as the left sphere’s negative charge. (iii)
Separate the spheres while the charged rod remains close to the left sphere, so
the separated charge remains on the spheres. (iv) Take the charged rod away
from the two spheres. The separated charges redistribute uniformly over the
metal sphere surfaces.

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3. 22.14: Two small plastic spheres each have a mass of 2.0 g and a charge of −50.0 nC.
They are placed 2.0 cm apart (center-to-center).
(a) What is the magnitude of the electric force on each sphere?
(b) By what factor is the electric force on a sphere larger than its weight?

Solution:

4. 22.17: What is the net electric force on charge A?

Solution: Model: Charges A, B, and C are point charges.

Visualize:

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 Charge A experiences an electric force F⃗BonA due to charge B and an electric force
F⃗ConA due to charge C. The force F⃗BonA is directed to the right and the force F⃗ConA
is directed to the left.
Solve: Coulomb’s law yields:
Nm2 (1.0 × 10−9 C)(1.0 × 10−9 C)
 
|qA ||qB |
FBonA = K = 9.0 × 109 = 9.0 × 10−5 N
r2 C2 (1.0 × 10−2 m)2
Nm2 (1.0 × 10−9 C)(4.0 × 10−9 C)
 
|qA ||qC |
FConA = K 2
= 9.0 × 109 2 −2 2
= 9.0 × 10−5 N
r C (2.0 × 10 m)
The net force on A is
FonA = FBonA − FConA = 0 N

5. 22.44: (video solution provided) What is the force F⃗ on the −1.0 nC charge in the
middle of the figure due to the four other charges? Give your answer in component form.

Solution: Model: The charges are point charges.

Visualize:
Known: q = 1.0 nC, L = 1.0 cm
Find: F⃗net = F⃗AonM + F⃗BonM + F⃗ConM + F⃗DonM in component form
I labeled the charges on the corners of the square A – D and the middle charge as M
and sketch in the force vectors due to each on the central charge. They are labeled
such that F⃗AonM for example means the force of charge A on the middle charge. Note
that the vectors are all drawn with their tail on the middle charge.

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 𝑦𝑦

A B

𝑥𝑥

D C

And the geometry for just charge A:

2𝐿𝐿
𝐿𝐿
2
2

𝐿𝐿 45°
2

Solve:
We can significantly simplify the problem with a good figure and a few simple argu-
ments. By the symmetry of the problem (same distances and magnitudes of charges)
all 4 charges exert the same magnitude force on the central charge.
Each positive y-component is balanced by an equal magnitude negative y-component
so the net force in the y-direction will be 0, e.g. Fnet,y = 0.
The x-components have similar symmetry but all point in the same direction so it is
sufficient to find the x-component of 1 and multiply by 4 for the net.
I start by finding the magnitude (for charge A) using Coulomb’s Law:

|q1 ||q2 | 2kq 2 4kq 2

FAonM = k = √ = (1)
r2 ( 2L/2)2 L2

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 4kq 2
The x-component is FAonM,x = L2
cos 45◦ . The net force is 4 times this

16kq 2
Fnet,x = 4FAonM,x = cos 45◦ = 1.02 × 10−3 N (2)
L2
Assess:

• Answered the question? Yes

Nm2 2
• Correct units, signs, and significant figures? check: kq 2 /L2 has units C2
C /m2
everything chancels except N as expected for a force.
• Answer reasonable? These are typical charges for the static electricity exper-
iments we did in the lab. From experience the forces are weak, but strong
enough to move a light pith ball around. 10−3 N seems reasonable for this.
Small compared to forces we feel but only by a couple orders of magnitude.

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