12th CBSE

PHYSICS PROJECT
SHREE SKANDA CENTRAL
SCHOOL

SUBMITTED BY:

ANJAN.R
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the PHYSICS project titled
“Electromagnetic Induction” has been
successfully completed by Anjan.R of class
Xll,Shree Skanda Central School, in the partial
fulfillment by Central Board Of Secondary
Education (CBSE) leading to the award of the
annual examination of the year 2014 -2015

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ACKNOWLEDGE
MENT
“ There are times when silence speak so much more
louder than words of praise to only as good as
belittle a person, whosewords do not express, but
only put a veneer

over true feelings, which are of gratitude at this point

of time.”

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my physics

mentor for his vital support, guidance and encouragement,
without which this project would not have come forth. I
would also like to express my gratitude to the OTHER staff
of the Department of Physics for their support during the
making of this project.
TO ESTIMATE
THE CHARGE
INDUCED ON
EACH OF THE
TWO
IDENTICAL
STRYO FOAM
(OR PITH)
BALLS
SUSPENDED IN
A VERTICAL
PLANE BY
MAKING USE
OF COULOMB’S
LAW
COULOMB:
Coulomb graduated in
November 1761 from
École royale du génie
de Mézières. Over the
next twenty years he
was posted to a variety
of locations where he
was involved in
engineering -
structural, fortifications,
soil mechanics, as well as other fields of
engineering. His first posting was to Brest but in
February 1764 he was sent to Martinique, in the
West Indies,
where he was put in charge of building the new
Fort Bourbon and this task occupied him until
June 1772.

On his return to France, Coulomb was sent to

Bouchain. However, he now began to write
important works on applied mechanics and he
presented his first work to the Académie des
Sciences in Paris in 1773. In 1779 Coulomb
was sent to Rochefort to collaborate with the
Marquis de Montalembert in constructing a fort
made entirely from wood near Ile d'Aix. During
his period at Rochefort, Coulomb carried on his
research into mechanics, in particular using the
shipyards in Rochefort as laboratories for his
experiments.
Upon his return to France, with the rank of
Captain, he was employed at La Rochelle, the
Isle of Aix and Cherbourg. He discovered an
inverse relationship of the force
betweenelectric charges and the square of its
distance, later named after him as Coulomb's
law.

COULOMB’S LAW:

In 1785 Augustine de Coulomb investigated the

attractive and repulsive forces between charged
objects, experimentally formulating what is now
referred to as Coulomb’s Law: “The magnitude
of the electric force that a particle exerts on
another is directly proportional to the product of
their charges and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between them.”
Mathematically, this electrostatic F acting on
two charged particles (q1, q2) is expressed as
where r is the separation distance between the
objects and k is a constant of proportionality,
called the Coulomb constant, k = 9.0 × 109 N ·
m2/C2. This formula gives us the magnitude of
the force as well as direction by noting a
positive force as attractive and a negative force
as repulsive. Noting that like charges repel
each other and opposite charges attracting
each other, Coulomb measured the force
between the objects, small metal coated balls,
by using a torsion balance similar to the
balance used to measure gravitational forces.

OBJECTIVE:

To estimate the charge induced on each of the

two identical styro foam (or pith) balls
suspended in a vertical plane by making use of
coulomb’s law.
MATERIALS REQUIRED:
➯Small size identical balls (pitch or soft plastic)
➯Physical balance or electronic balance
➯Halfmeter Scale
➯Cotton thread
➯Stand
➯Glass rod (or plastic rod)
➯Silk cloth (or wollen 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 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 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:
1. 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.

2) The force is proportional to the product 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 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.
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.
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.
Let the force between two stationary charges
be F:

The Weight of the ball

W = mg
The restoring force on each
ball
=mg sinθ

From the diagram in the right

In triangle ACB
 sinθ
= x/2l Let

the charge on each

ball is: q1=q2=q

Then at equlilibrium,

kq×q
mg sinθ = x
2

x kq2
=mg 2l = x2

mgx3

-> g=2lk
PROCEDURE:-

1) Weight the mass of each identical pitch

balls by balance and note down it.
2) 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
half meter scale. The length of threads
should be equal. Note down the length.
3) Rub the glass rod with silk cloth and touch
with both balls together so that the balls
acquired equal charge.
4) Suspend the balls freely and the balls stay
away a certain distance between the balls
 when they become stationary. Note down
the distance.
5) Touch any one suspended ball with other
uncharged third ball and takes the third ball
away and repeat the step 4.
6) Touch other suspended ball with other
uncharged fourth ball and takes the fourth
ball away and repeat the step 4.

OBSERVATION:

1) Mass of each ball,(m) = _____g.

2) Radius of each ball,(r) = _____mm.
3) Length of each thread,(l)= _____cm.
S.NO CHARGE ON BALL CHARGE ON BALL DISTANCE BETWEEN

A B THE BALLS

q q (x cm)
( 1 ) ( 2 )
 1.

2.

3.

4.

Calculations:

By using the relation

3
mgx
2 lk
g=
Calculate the charge in each case:
RESULTS:

The charge on each ball = _______ C

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

SOURCE OF ERROR:
1. The balls may not be of equal size and
mass.
2. The distance between the balls may be
measured accurately.