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Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Born on June 14, 1736, in Angouleme,
France, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
studied engineering and plied his trade with
the military before winning accolades for his
Symbol unit work in torsion balances. He offered
Charge: pioneering theories in the force found
between electrical charges, as well as
Rule for using charge in the Physics 30 formulas: magnetic attraction and repulsion. The unit
of measurement known as the coulomb is
named in his honor. He died in Paris on
August 23, 1806.
Explain how Coulombs Torsion Balance was used to determine the force between two charged spheres:
Physics 30 Outcome 1 Lesson 2: Coulombs Law
QUESTION 1: What is the magnitude of each charge? Which charge is larger? Controlled
Move the charges around, changing the distance between them so they are closer together and further apart.
Gather data from at least 8 points and plot the force as a function of distance using the graph below. Note that
separation distance is the distance between the centres of the objects.
Use your graphing calculator or Desmos to plot each of the following graphs. Sketch the results below
Linear Quadratic Inverse Square
QUESTION 3: Which of the three graph types above looks the most like your graph of force as a function of
distance?
Physics 30 Outcome 1 Lesson 2: Coulombs Law
In a Coulomb-type experiment, students were investigating the relationship between the force of electrostatic
repulsion acting on two charged spheres and their separation distance The results of their investigations
yielded the following results.
3) Make a new table of values to obtain data to straighten the graph (Curve Straightening)
7) If the charges of the two spheres are the same, what is the value of the charge on each sphere?
Physics 30 Outcome 1 Lesson 2: Coulombs Law
Vector notation:
Example: Draw the force vector with a magnitude of 150 N at an angle of 30o north of east and write it in the
three different notations.
Example: A box is pushed along a road with a force of <13, -14> N. Convert this force vector into magnitude
[angle] notation.
Physics 30 Outcome 1 Lesson 2: Coulombs Law
Vector Operations:
Multiply by a scalar
Example: A 10 kg box is pushed with an acceleration of 15 m/s2 [12o N of W]. What is the force on the box?
Example: A car travels with a velocity of <15, -10> m/s for 15 s. What is the cars displacement?
Note: you are not able to add a vector to a scalar or multiply to vectors using high school vector algebra.
2. The electric force between two charged objects is 5.2 x 10-4 N when the objects are 3.11 x 10-1 m apart.
What is the electric force between the same objects if the distance is changed to 4.04 x 10-1 m? (3.1 x 10-4 N)
3. Two small metallic spheres have the same mass and volume. One of the spheres has a charge of +4.00
C and the other a charge of -1.00 C. If the two spheres are brought into brief contact with each other and
are then separated to a distance of 0.200 m, what is the electric force between them? (0.506 N)
4. Three charges are placed in a line, as shown in the diagram. DONT DO. MISSING DIAGRAM
a) What is the net electrostatic force on charge A? [1.20 x 104 N [right]]
b) What is the net electrostatic force on charge B? [7.49 x 103 N [left]]
5. Calculate the net electrostatic force on charge B shown in the figure to the right.
[2.54 x 102 N [225o]]
6. A metal sphere with a negative charge of 3.00 C is placed 12.0 cm from another similar metal sphere with
a positive charge of 2.00 C. The two spheres momentarily touch, and then return to their original
positions. Calculate the electrostatic force acting on the two metal spheres. [1.56 x 10-1 N [repulsion]]
7. A metal sphere with a charge of -2.50 x 10-9 C is 1.50 cm to the left of a second metal sphere with a charge
of +1.50 x 10-9 C. A third metal sphere of -1.00 x 10-9 C is situated 2.00 cm to the right of the second charged
sphere. If all three charges form a line, determine the net electrostatic force on the second sphere. [1.16 x 10-4
N [left]]
8. Two point charged objects produce an electric force of 0.0620 N on each other. What is the electric force if
the distance between them increases three times and one of the charges is doubled? (0.0138 N)
10. In the diagram to the right, A has a charge of +0.30 C, B has a charge
of -0.20 C and C has a charge of -0.20 C. What is the net force
on A? (0.093 N [S])