INTORDUCTION

Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of
amber, could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers. Thales of
Miletus made a series of observations on static electricity around 600 BC, from which he
believed that friction rendered amber magnetic, in contrast to minerals such as
magnetite, which needed no rubbing. Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction
was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism
and electricity. Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for
millennia until 1600, when the English scientist William Gilbert made a careful study of
electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the lodestone effect from static electricity
produced by rubbing amber. He coined the New Latin word electricus ("of amber" or
"like amber", from λεκτρον [ἤelektron], the Greek word for "amber") to refer to the
property of attracting small objects after being rubbed. This association gave rise to the
English words "electric" and "electricity", which made their first appearance in print in
Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646.

Early investigators of the 18th century who suspected that the electrical force
diminished with distance as the force of gravity did (i.e., as the inverse square of the
distance) included Daniel Bornoulli and Alessandro Volta, both of whom measured the
force between plates of a capacitor, and Franz Aeipinus who supposed the inverse-
square law in 1758. Based on experiments with electrically charged spheres, Joseph
Priestly of England was among the first to propose that electrical force followed an
inverse square law, similar to Newton’s law of universal gravitation. However, he did
not generalise or elaborate on this. In 1767, he conjectured that the force between
charges varied as the inverse square of the distance.

In 1769, Scottish physicist John Robison announced that, according to his

measurements, the force of repulsion between two spheres with charges of the same
sign varied as x−2.06. In the early 1770s, the dependence of the force between charged
bodies upon both distance and charge had already been discovered, but not published,
by Henry Cavendish of England.

Finally, in 1785, the French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb published his first
three reports of electricity and magnetism where he stated his law. This publication was
essential to the development of the theory of electromagnetism.He used a torsion
balance 000 study the repulsion and attraction forces of charged particles, and
determined that the magnitude of the electric force between two point charges is
directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between them.The torsion balance consists of a bar suspended
from its middle by a thin fiber. The fiber acts as a very weak torsion spring. In Coulomb's
experiment, the torsion balance was an insulating rod with a metal-coated ball attached
to one end, suspended by a silk thread. The ball was charged with a known charge of
static electricity, and a second charged ball of the same polarity was brought near it.
The two charged balls repelled one another, twisting the fiber through a certain angle,
which could be read from a scale on the instrument. By knowing how much force it took
to twist the fiber through a given angle Coulomb was able to calculate the force
between the balls and derive his inverse-square proportionality law.
 THEORY
The fundamental concept of electrostatics is electric 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. The 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.

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 distance between the
charges (measured in meters).
· k is a constant of nature (equal to 8.9875517873681764×109 Nm2C−2 or 9×109
Nm2C−2 in SI units).
· r is the distance between the two charged particles.

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. 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 forces is proportional to the products 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 of atom that consists of negatively
charged electrons moving in quantum motion around a positively charged nucleus. The
total negative charge of the electrons is equal to the total positive charge . So the atoms
as well as the entire object don’t have net electrical charge. If we charge something by
friction , there only occurs the transfer of charges from one to another object.

A neutral particle is not affected by electrical forces. A charged object can attract
neutral object by the method 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 towards the negative rod. There occurs induced
polarization but net charge is always zero.
The polarization of charge in the insulator is small but now its positive charge is a little
closer to the negatively charged rod, and its negative charge is a bit far 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 negatively charged 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 has been charged without actually being
touched with the charged rod. This process is called charging by induction.

__________________________________________________

Let the force between two stationary charges be F

F α q1 q2
F α 1/r2
From the above two expressions,
F= k q1q2/r2
=1/4πε0 q1q2/r2
Where k = 9 x 109 Nm2/C2
And is called absolute permittivity of free space or vacuum =8.854 x 10-12 C2 /N/ m2
_______________________________________________________________________
Let the two identical pith balls (B1 and B2) of mass ‘m’ are hanged from strings of length
‘l’ each .
When the two balls are given charge q1 and q2 respectively the electrostatic force acting
between them will be , F= k q1q2/r2
Because of this force, they are separated by a distance ‘r’ as shown in the figure .
Force acting on ball B1
(i)__Weight of ball B1 , W= mg
(same as that of B2)
This can be resolved in two components mgcosθ and
mgsinθ .
Component mgsinθ is the restoring component.
In state of equilibrium
Electrostatic force = mgsinθ
Or , F = k q1q2/r2 = mgsinθ
From OBC , sinθ =r/2l
k q1q2/r2 = mg r/2l
If both the identical pith balls have samecharge on them , then q1=q2=q
K q2 / r2 = mgr /2l
q= √mgr3/2kl
By putting the values of ‘m’ , ‘r’ , ‘l’, ‘g’ and ‘k’ we can estimate the charge on the two
identically charged pith balls.
 PROCEDURE
1. Measure the mass (m) of each of the two identical pith balls using a physical
balance.

2. Hang the two balls from a rigid support using light silk or cotton threads of same
length ‘l’.

3. Take a glass rod and rub it with a silk cloth to induce charge on the rod.Now
touch the glass rod with both the pith balls together so that equal charge is
induced on both the balls.

4. When left freely, the two balls will repel each other and when they are at rest
separated away from each other , measure the distance between them.

5. To change the charge on ball, take third uncharged ball touch it to any one of the
two balls and take the third ball away, again measure the distance
between the two hanging balls.
 OBSERVATIONS
Mass of the pith balls m = __ gm.

Radius of the ball a = __ cm.

Length of thread l= ___ cm.

S. No. Charge on Charge on Distance between

the 2 balls (in cm)
the ball b1 the ball b2
01

02

03

04
 CALCULATIONS
Charge on the pith ball
q = √mgr3/2kl

CONCLUSION
The charge on pith balls in different cases

are________ C
 PRECAUTIONS

1. The suspended balls should not be touched by

any conducting body.

2. Rub the glass rod properly with silk rod to

produce more charge.

3. Weight the mass of the balls accurately.