Questions

1. You are given two metal spheres mounted on portable insulating supports. Find a
way to give them equal and opposite charges. You may use a glass rod rubbed with
silk but may not touch it to the spheres. Do the spheres have to be of equal size for
your method to work?

Answer:
If we have two metal spheres electrically neutral. To get them charge first keep close the
spheres that their charges can pass through each other. Then take a charged glass rod
keep close to the spheres, as the condition given in the question that not to touch the rod
so do not touch the sphere to the rod just keep it close, as the spheres are metallic then
charges will flow from one to another sphere due to presence of electric field of rod. Say
rod has a charge of positive then all the negative charges will come close to rod and
positive charges will be away from the rod. By this method dipole will be formed, one
sphere will be of positive charge (away from the rod) and another sphere will be of
negative charge (near to the rod) and then separate them from each other then we can
remove rod from the enviroment and spheres will be remained charged. No there is not
such condition that spheres will be of equal size.

2. In Question 1, find a way to give the spheres equal charges of the same sign. Again,
do the spheres need to be of equal size for your method to work?

Answer:
Here in the second question we cannot perform the same approach as we did in question
1, the reason behind this is the condition which is placed in this question that spheres
must be of the same sign. To perform such experiment we have to take three spheres.
Take the charge rod keep the charge near to one sphere (don’t touch to sphere) and then
touch the sphere to another sphere and repeat the same process with other sphere. Then
we will get two sphere of the same sign and to get equal charge allow the charged spheres
to touch each other. Again there is no such condition that sphere must be of the same
size.
3. A charged rod attracts bits of dry cork dust, which, after touching the rod, often
jump violently away from it. Explain.

Answer:
Only those dry cork dusk will attract to the rod which has charge and having opposite
charge from the rod. If these dust particles attracts to the rod then they will takes required
charge from the rod to be neutral and after this charge flow the particles becomes neutral
and jump violently away from the rod.

4. How would your answers to Multiple-choice question 1, Multiple-choice question 2,

and Multiple-choice question 3 change if any of the objects A, B, or C could be
uncharged?

Answer:
The uncharged object will not be participate in attraction and repulsion.

5. The experiments described in Section 25-2 could be explained by postulating four

kinds of charge—that is, on glass, silk, plastic, and fur. What is the argument
against this?

Answer:
As in the experiment by rubbing a plastic with fur plastic will become negative charge
and by rubbing glass with silk the glass will become positive charge, we also can say that
by rubbing plastic with fur plastic will become positive charge and by rubbing glass with
fur glass will become positive charge and the overall result of the experiment will not be
affected by taking argument against the experiment in Section 25-2.

6. A positive charge is brought very near to an uncharged insulated conductor. The

conductor is grounded while the charge is kept near. Is the conductor charged
positively, negatively, or not at all if (a) the charge is taken away and then the
ground connection is removed and (b) the ground connection is removed and then
the charge is taken away?

Answer:
(a) If the charge is taken away and then the ground connection is removed then there will
be no charge at all on the conductor this is because by taking away the charge,
induction in the conductor will again be removed and the conductor will remain
uncharged because of absence of external field.
(b) If the ground connection is removed first and then charge is taken away, the
conductor will be negatively charged, the reason behind this is that removing the
ground connection, which is source of charges in the presence of external electric
field will cause the charges not to escape as there will be no way for exit.
7. A charged insulator can be discharged by passing it just above a flame. Explain
how.

Answer:
Flame is actually plasma state of matter so it contains positive and negative charges, if we
pass charged insulator above the flame or near to the flame it will discharged as it gains
or loss the charge which it have on its surface.

8. If you rub a coin briskly between your fingers, it will not seem to become charged
by friction. Why?

Answer:
By rubbing the coin briskly (rapidly) or slowly between the fingers will not seem to
become charged by friction as it is conductor so applying friction it will make small
distribution in charges but in conductor there is free electrons which redistribute
themselves and no net charged will be seen.

9. If you walk briskly across a carpet, you often experience a spark on touching a door
knob. (a) What causes this? (b) How might it be prevented?

Answer:
(a) The reason behind this is as the carpet is insulator due to friction charge will
distribute between your body and carpet and by touching door knob, which is a
conductor takes all the charges from your body very rapidly and you got a small
shock of current
(b) It can be prevented by grounding yourself before touching any conductor.

10. Why do electrostatic experiments not work well on humid days?

Answer:
The reason behind this is very simple that in humid days the enviroment is full of water
molecules which are highly polar molecules due to hydrogen bonds, so by performing
any electrostatic experiment the charges on the system will take by enviroment and
system becomes neutral.

11. Why is it recommended that you touch the metal frame of your personal computer
before installing any internal accessories?

Answer:
It is because sometimes the metal frame got charge from surrounding, if you install any
internal accessory could cause damage, by touching metal frame all the charge on the
frame was ground by your body and not a single charge left on the frame of your
computer.
12. An insulated rod is said to carry an electric charge. How could you verify this and
determine the sign of the charge?

Answer:
By taking charge object near this insulated rod, if the charge object attract or repel from
the rod then we can say the rod contains a charge on it. The sign of the charge cannot be
determined and it will not affect if say the charge is positive or negative.

13. If a charged glass rod is held near one end of an insulated uncharged metal rod as in
Fig. 25-14, electrons are drawn to one end, as shown. Why does the flow of electrons
cease? After all, there is an almost inexhaustible supply of them in the metal rod.

Answer:
The flow of electrons become ceased, it is due to external field of charged glass rod
which binds the electrons at specific region.

14. In Fig 25-14, does any resultant electric force act on the metal rod? Explain.

Answer:
Yes, the force between charges of glass and metal rod exerts electric force on each other.

15. A person standing on an insulating stool touches a charged insulated conductor. Is

the conductor discharged completely?

Answer:
As the person standing on insulating stool so he is not grounded, if he touches a charged
insulated conductor only that amount of charge will be discharged which is on the body
of person and the remaining will be still left on charged insulated conductor.

16. (a) A positively charged glass rod attracts a suspended object. Can we conclude that
the object is negatively charged? (b) A positively charged glass rod repels a
suspended object. Can we conclude that the object is positively charged?

Answer:
(a) Yes, it does not matter that we assume the glass has positive charge and object has
negative or vice versa, if the objects attracts each other it means the charges must be
opposite.
(b) Yes, it is the same case as previous but here the charges repel so it means we should
take same charge on both objects whether positive or negative does not matter.
17. Explain what is meant by the statement that electrostatic forces obey the principle
of superposition?

Answer:
Net electric force can be calculate by taking vector sum of all the forces which affect the
system, this statement is fully applicable on electrostatic force.

18. Is the electric force that one charge exerts on another changed if other charges are
brought nearby?

Answer:
Yes, as the electric force is calculated by the superposition of all the charges so it will
affect overall electric force if another charge enters in the system.

19. A solution of copper sulfate is a conductor. What particles serve as the charge
carries in this case?

Answer:
Both will carry equal but opposite charge, each ion of copper carry +2 charge and each
ion of sulfate carry -2 charge.

20. If the electrons in a metal such as copper are free to move about, they must often
find themselves headed toward the metal surface. Why do they not keep on going
and leave the metal?

Answer:
Because the nuclease of metals like copper will never allow them to leave the surface,
this model is also known as electron sea model in which a new type of bond is introduced
which is known as metallic bond. This metallic bond will never let the copper electrons to
leave the surface of metal.