2013 E.

C Physics Work sheet on Electrostatics For Grade 12

Electric Charges and coulomb’s Law

1. The charge on a body is Q= +0.64C. How many electrons have been added or removed
from it?
2. Calculate the total charge of 75 kg of electrons.
3. How many electrons would have to be removed from a body to leave it with a charge of
+1.0 × 10-7 C? And to what fraction of the electrons in the body does this correspond?
[A body has a mass of 3.11g; assume it is made entirely of copper.]
4. A point charge of +3× 10-6 C is 12 cm distant from a second point charge of -1.50 × 10-6
C.
Calculate the magnitude of the force on each charge
5. What must be the distance between point charge q1=26µC and point charge q2= -47µC
for the electrostatic force between them to have a magnitude of 5.70 N?
6. In fission, a nucleus of uranium–238, which contains 92 protons, divides into two smaller
spheres, each having 46 protons and a radius of 5.9 × 10-15 m. What is the magnitude of
the repulsive electric force pushing the two spheres apart?
7. Two small positively charged spheres have a combined charge of 5.0 × 10 -5 C. If each
sphere is repelled from the other by an electrostatic force of 1.0 N when the spheres are
2.0 m apart, what is the charge on each sphere?
8. Two identical conducting spheres, fixed in place, attract each other with an electrostatic
force of 0.108 N when separated by 50.0 cm, center-to-center. The spheres are then
connected by a thin conducting wire. When the wire is removed, the spheres repel each
other with an electrostatic force of 0.36N. What were the initial charges on the spheres?
9. Three point charges are placed at the corners of an equilateral triangle, as shown in
figure below. Calculate the net electric force experienced by
(a) the 9μC and
(b) the -6μC.

10. Determine the force between two protons a distance of 2mm apart.
11. What is the magnitude of the force between two 1C charges 1cm apart?
12. Two point charges, q1 = +25 nC and q2 = -75nC are separated by a distance r = 3cm.
Find the magnitude and direction of the electric force
a) that q1exerts on q2 and
b) that q2 exerts on q1
13. Two charged particles of q1=1.6x10-19C and q2 = 3.2x10-19C are fixed on the x -axis with
a separation of r = 0.02m. Particle 3 with charge q3= -3.2x10-19C is placed at a distance
of 3/4r from particle 1. What is the net force on particle 1 due to particles 2 and 3?
14. Two point charges are located on the x-axis of a coordinate system: q1=1nC is at
x= 2cm, and q2 = -3nC is at x=4cm. What is the total electric force exerted by q1 and

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2013 E.C Physics Work sheet on Electrostatics For Grade 12

and q2 on a charge q3 = 5nC is at x= 0?

15. Three point charges lie along the x axis as shown in figure. The positive charge
q1=15 C is at x= 2m, the positive charge q2 = 6 C is at the origin and the resultant force
acting on q3 is zero. What is the x coordinate of q3?

16. Suppose three point charges are arranged as shown in Fig. A charge q1 = +1.2 μC is
located at the origin of an (x, y) coordinate system; a second charge q2 = - 0.6μC is
located at (1.2m, 0.5m) and the third charge q3 = +0.2μC is located at (1.2m, 0). What
is the force on q2 due to the other two charges?

17. Consider three point charges at the corners of a triangle, as shown in figure, where
q1=6 C, q2=- 2 C, and q3= 5 C.
(a) Find the components of the force F23 exerted by q2 on q3.
(b) Find the components of the force F13 exerted by q1 on q3.
(c) Find the resultant force on q3, in terms of components and also in terms of magnitude
and direction.

18. Consider three point charges located at the corners of a

right triangle as shown in figure, where q1 = q3 = 5 C and
q2 = -2 C, a = 0.10 m. Find the resultant force exerted
on q3

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2013 E.C Physics Work sheet on Electrostatics For Grade 12

19. Two identical small charged spheres, each having a mass of 3x10-2 kg, hang in
equilibrium as shown in Figure. The length of each string is 0.15 m, and the angle
is 5°. Find the magnitude of the charge on each sphere.

20. Calculations suggest that there are around 1029 electrons and the same number of
protons in the body of a 70 kg person. Calculate the magnitude of the electrostatic
force Fe between the electrons in one 60 kg person and the protons in another 60 kg
person standing 2 m away. Compare this with the size of the gravitational force Fg
between the two people.
21.The electron and proton of a hydrogen atom are separated by a distance of about
5.3x10-11m.
a) Find the magnitudes of the electric force and the gravitational force that each particle
exerts on the other, and the ratio of the electric force Fe to the gravitational force Fg.
b) Compute the acceleration caused by the electric force of the proton on the electron.
Repeat for the gravitational acceleration.

Electric Fields
1. The force on a charge of 3 is found out to be 0.6N in an upward direction. What are the
magnitude and direction of the electric field at that point?
2. Calculate the electric field strength at a distance of 20cm from a point charge 4x10-6C
3. An electric field strength created by charge Q is measured to be 40 N/C at a distance of
0.2 m from the center of the charge. What is the new field strength when the distance
from the center of Q is changed to 0.4 m away with twice the charge of Q?
4. Two point charges Q1 = 96 and Q2 = - 40 are 7m apart along the x -axis. At a point p
which is on the line b/n the charges 4m fromQ1
Calculate a) the electric field due to Q1
b) the electric field due to Q2
c) the resultant field.
5. Two particles with equal charge magnitudes 2109C but opposite signs are held 16
cm apart. What are the magnitude and direction of the electric field E at the point
midway between the charges?

6. Two point charges on x-axis Q1 = 100 and Q2 = 60 are 4m apart . Calculate the
magnitude and direction of the electric field at a point mid-way b/n the charges
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2013 E.C Physics Work sheet on Electrostatics For Grade 12

7. Two equal charges each are at the bottom corner points A and B of an equilateral
triangle of side 10cm. Point P is the top of the triangle and AB is the base
a) Draw a diagram showing the charges at points A and B as well as the electric fields
due to the charges at point.
b) Find the net electric field at point p

9. An object having a net charge of 24 µC is placed in a uniform electric field of 6 10 N/C

directed vertically. What is the mass of this object if it “floats” in the field?
10. An electron is released from rest in a uniform electric of magnitude 2 ×10 4 N/C.
Calculate the acceleration of the electron.
11. What is the magnitude of a point charge that would create an electric field of 1N/C at
points 1m away?
12. Calculate the direction and magnitude of the electric field at point P in the Fig. below,
due to the three point charges.
13. A right isosceles triangle of side a has charges q, +2q and -q arranged on its vertices,
as shown in figure below. What is the electric field at a point P, midway between the
line connecting the +q and -q charges? Give the magnitude and direction of the electric
field.

15. Four point charges are placed at the corners of a square of side a, as shown in figure
below.
(a) What is the electric field at the location of charge q?
(b) What is the net force on 2q?

Charge movement in the direction of the field

1. An electron and a proton are each placed at rest in an electric field of 520 N/C. Calculate
the speed of each particle 48 ns after being released.
2. Beams of high–speed protons can be produced in “guns” using electric fields to
accelerate the protons.
(a) What acceleration would a proton experience if the gun’s electric field were2×104 N/C?
(b) What speed would the proton attain if the field accelerated the proton through a
distance of 1cm? .
13. A negatively charged particle accelerates from left to right in a uniform electric field.
What are the direction and the value of the electric field if the particle has charge q = 3µC,
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2013 E.C Physics Work sheet on Electrostatics For Grade 12

mass m=1mg, and if the value of its acceleration is 3x10-3 m/s2?

4. An electron is projected horizontally into the uniform electric field directed vertically
downward between two parallel plates. The plates are 2 cm apart and are of length 4 cm.
The initial speed of the electron is vi = 8× 106 m/s. As it enters the region between the
plates, the electron is midway between the two plates; as it leaves, the electron just misses
the upper plate. What is the magnitude of the electric field?

5. A particle of mass 9.11x10-31kg and a negative charge of 1.6x10-19C is projected

horizontally with a velocity of 106m/s into a region b/n two infinite horizontal parallel plate
of metal. The distance b/n the plates is 0.3cmand the particle enters 0.1cm below the top
plate. The top and bottom plates are connected respectively to the +ve and negative
terminals of a 30V battery. Find the components of the velocity of the particle just before it
hits on of the plates.
Gauss Law and Electric fields
1. Find the electric flux due to the charges for the closed surfaces S1, S2, S3 and S4.

2. Using Gauss’s law find the electric field at a distance r from a point charge Q.
3. Calculate the electric field strength a) inside b) outside a uniform charge distribution of
solid sphere of radius R and charge Q.
4. Determine the electric field strength at points a) inside b) outside a thin spherical shell
of radius R that has a total charge Q distributed uniformly over its surface.
5. Calculate the electric field inside an insulating sphere of radius R at a distance r from
the center.
6. What is the magnitude of the electric flux Φ emanating from a point charge of 2 µC?
7. Find the total flux passing through the sides of a cube 1m on a side if a point charge of
5× 10-6C is located at its center.
8. The total electric flux Φ through a sphere is 2.82 ×105Nm2/C. What is the value of the
enclosed charge q?
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2013 E.C Physics Work sheet on Electrostatics For Grade 12

9. Find the value of the electric field at a distance r=10cm from the center of a non-
conducting sphere of radius R=1cm which has an extra positive charge equal to 7C
uniformly distributed within the volume of the sphere
10.An electric field of 500 N/C makes an angle of 30o with the surface vector, which has a
magnitude of 0.5m2. Find the electric flux that passes through the surface.
11. Determine the magnitude of the flux of a uniform field ⃗ = 500N/C directed vertically
upwards for a plane rectangular surface 10mx2m when
a) The surface is horizontal
b) The surface is vertical
c) A normal to the surface makes an angle of 370 with respect to the vertical
12. A cube of side 1m is in a region of uniform electric field ⃗ ( )
a) Determine the flux for each of the faces
b) Find the net flux for the entire closed surface.

Electric fields and dipoles

1. An electric dipole of charges 3.2x10-19C and - 3.2x10-19C is separated by 0.8m.It is in an
electric field of strength 4x106 N/C. Calculate the magnitude of the torque on the dipole
when the dipole moment is
a) parallel
b) at right angle opposite to the electric field
2. An electric dipole consists of two charges q1=+2e andq2=-2e ,
separated by a distance d=10-9m. The electric charges are placed
along the y-axis as shown in Figure below.
Suppose a constant external electric field E=(3i+3j)N/C is applied
(a) What is the magnitude and direction of the dipole moment?
(b)What is the magnitude and direction of the torque on the dipole?

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