Physics Group work first assignment for 10th Grade students’

Instruction: For work out questions show all the necessary steps before choosing the correct answers from the
given alternatives. Similarly give explanations for each of the conceptual questions.
1. Which one of the following statement is not correct?
A. A positively charged object has excess number of protons.
B. Like charges attract each another, and unlike charges repel one another.
C. Charges are quantized.
D. Charges are always conserved for an isolated system.
2. Which one of the following is not true about electrically neutral object?
A. It has equal number of electrons and protons.
B. It does not have excess or deficiency of charges.
C. It cannot be attracted by charged bodies.
D. There is no attraction or repulsion between two neutral objects.
3. Which one of the following statement is false about a negatively charged object?
A. It has shortage of protons. B. The number of electrons is greater than protons.
C. It loses protons. D. It gains electrons.
4. Which of the following possible action is happening when a hard rubber rod is given a negative charge by
rubbing it with wool?
A. Positive charges are transferred from rod to wool. B. Negative charges are transferred from rod to wool.
C. Positive charges are transferred from wool to rod. D. Negative charges are transferred from wool to rod.
5. When an electrically charged object is brought near an uncharged charged object it ______.
A. repels the uncharged charged object. B. attracts the uncharged charged object.
C. attracts or repels the uncharged charged object depending on the type of electrical charge.
D. neither attracts nor repels the uncharged charged object.
6. A physics teacher rubs a glass object and a felt cloth together and the glass becomes positively charged. Which
of the following statements are true? Circle all that apply.
A. The glass gained protons during the rubbing process.
B. The felt became charged negatively during this rubbing process.
C. Charge is created during the rubbing process; it is grabbed by the more charge hungry object.
D. If the glass acquired a charge of +5 units, then the felt acquires a charge of -5 units.
E. This event violates the law of conservation of charge.
F. Electrons are transferred from glass to felt; protons are transferred from felt to glass.
G. Once charged in this manner, the glass object and the felt cloth should attract each other.
H. In general, glass materials must have a greater affinity for electrons than felt materials.
7. During a physics lab, a plastic strip was rubbed with cotton and became positively charged. The correct
explanation for why the plastic strip becomes positively charged is that ...
A. the plastic strip acquired extra protons from the cotton.
B. the plastic strip acquired extra protons during the charging process.
C. protons were created as the result of the charging process.
D. the plastic strip lost electrons to the cotton during the charging process.
8. When a charged rod approaches a positively charged electroscope, the leaves of the electroscope diverge more.
When the same rod is close to a bit piece of papers, the papers get attracted to it. This shows that ___.
A. The papers must be positively charged. B. The paper may be neutral but still be attracted.
C. The papers must be positively charged. D. The rod is negatively charged.

1
9. An electroscope is touched with a positively charged object A. When another object B is brought near the
electroscope without touching, the leaves of the electroscope diverges out. Which one is true?
A. The object B is positively charged. B. The object B is negatively charged.
C. The two objects are unlike charges. D. The object B is neutral.
10. When a glass bar is rubbed by a piece of silk, the glass bar becomes positively charged. This is because_____.
A. electrons move from the glass bar to the silk. B. protons move from the glass bar to the silk.
C. electrons move from the silk to the glass bar. D. protons move from the silk to the glass bar.
11. Three objects: A, B and C are made of electrically conducting materials. Object A is neutral and is placed near
object B, which is negatively charged. Object A is then grounded and object B is moved away. Object B is then
touched to neutral object C. What will be the charges on objects A and C at the end of this event sequence?
A. A will be positive, C will be negative B. A will be negative, C will be negative
C. A will be positive, C will be positive D. A will be negative, C will be positive
12. A conducting sphere has a net charge of -4.8x10-17 C. What is the approximate number of excess electrons on
the sphere? A. 100 B. 200 C. 300 D. 400 E. 500
13. A charge Q exerts a 12 N force on another charge q. If the distance between the charges is doubled, what is
the magnitude of the force exerted on Q by q?
A. 3 N B. 6 N C. 24 N D. 36 N E. 48 N
14. At what separation will two charges, each of magnitude 6.0 µC, exert a force of 1.4 N on each other?
A. 5.1x10-6 m B. 0.23 m C. 0.48 m D. 2.0 m E. 40 m
15. The diagram below shows the electric field near two point charges L and R. What is the charge of L and R
respectively?
A. positive; positive B. positive; negative
C. negative; positive D. negative; negative

16. The electric field 2 m from a point charge has a magnitude of 8 x 104 N/C. What is the strength of the electric
field at a distance of 4 m?
A. 2 x 104 N/C B. 4 x 104 N/C C. 1.6 x 105 N/C D. 3.2 x 105 N/C
17. A - 2.3 x 10 -6 C charge exerts a repulsive force of magnitude 0.35 N on an unknown charge 0.20 m away.
What are the magnitude and polarity of the unknown charge respectively?
A. 6.8 x 10 -7C; Negative B. 6.8 x 10-7C; Positive
-6
C. 1.2 x 10 C; Negative D. 1.2 x 10-6C; Positive
18. A 2 x 10-6 C charge is located halfway between an 8 x 10-6C charge and a -5 x 10-6C charge as shown below.

What is the net electrostatic force exerted by the two charges on the 2 x 10-6C charge?
A. 1.4 x 10-2 N towards the left B. 1.4 x 10-2 N towards the right
-2
C. 5.9 x 10 N towards the left D. 5.9 x 10-2 N towards the right
19. What is the magnitude of the electric field at point P due to the two charges shown?

A. 4.5 x 103 N/C B. 9.0 x 103 N/C C. 1.4 x 104 N/C D. 1.8 x 104 N/C

2
 Unit Four

Static and Current Electricity

Electrostatics is the study of charges at rest. It is associated with electric charge, a property of certain
elementary particles that make up the atoms of all ordinary matter. Electric charges can be stationary, as
in static electricity, or moving as in an electric current. All ideas of electricity are based on the theory that
all pieces of matter are made up of atoms. Each atom has a tiny core called nucleus, and round this nucleus
spin a number of electrons. The nucleus consists of protons and neutrons. Electric charge comes in two
forms: positive and negative. An atom generally consists of neutrons with no charges (electrically neutral),
proton with positive charges and electrons are negatively charged particles. In other words protons are
carriers of positive charges and electrons are carriers of negative charges. Electrons and protons contain
equal and opposite charges. The amount of charge they contain is:-
Charge of electron = - 1.6x10-19C
Charge of proton = +1.6 x10-19C
If an object has more protons than electrons, it is said to be positively charged. If it has more electrons
than protons it is said to be negatively charged. But if the number of protons is equal to the number of
electrons it is said to be electrically neutral.
Properties of electric charges
Some of the properties of electric charges are:
1. Electric charges exist in nature in two forms: positive and negative charges.
2. Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other.
3. Electric charge is always conserved for an isolated system. In other words, the total charge before
any chemical process is equal to the total charge after the process for isolated system (isolated
system in a sense means a system which does not gain charge from outside or give charge to the
environment.
4. Electric charge is quantized. This means electric charge exists in discrete packets that are integral
multiples of electron charge. Q = Ne where N = 0,  1,  2, - - -e=1.6x10-19C is magnitude of
charge of electron or proton.
5. Electric charge are additive i.e. they can be added as scalars because they are scalar physical
quantities. Example 1.5C + 3C = 4.5C
Methods of charging objects
Static electricity can be produced by different methods. These are charging by friction (rubbing), charging
by conduction and charging by induction.
(a) Charging by friction (by rubbing)
It occurs when two neutral objects are rubbed together and electric charges are transferred from one object
to the other. Some materials such silk are more likely to attract electrons and become negatively charged.
On the other hand, materials like glass and ebonite rod are more likely to give electrons and become

3
positively charged. This is because some kinds of atoms are more strongly attracted to electrons than
others. For example, when a rubber rod is rubbed with animal fur. During the rubbing process, the atoms
of rubber rod begin to take electrons from the atoms of animal fur. When the process has finished, the two
objects have become charged. The rubber rod has excess electrons and become negatively charged and
the animal fur has shortage of electrons and become positively charged.
(b) Charging by conduction
Charging by conduction occurs when a charged object makes contact with a neutral object. For example,
when a positively charged aluminum plate is touched to a neutral metal sphere. Before the process
(conduction) the aluminum plate has excess protons and the metal sphere is neutral. What is really
transferred is electron. So since the protons from the aluminum plate attract electrons from the sphere and
some of the electrons leave the sphere and migrate to the aluminum plate to balance some of the protons
on the plate. The aluminum plate has less excess positive charge and the metal sphere now has excess
positive charge. Hence both objects became positively charged. This process is also called charging by
contact. After charging by conduction the two bodies end up with similar charges. .
(c) Charging by Induction
It is a method of charging process where a charged object is held near (without making an actual contact)
to a neutral object. If a negatively charged object A is brought near a neutral object B, the electrons in B
are repelled as far as possible from A and flow to the other side of B. The protons that remain in the near
side of the sphere are attracted to the charged object. When the side of B is then connected to the ground
by a good conductor, such as a metal wire, the electrons migrate through the wire in to the ground. If the
wire is then removed before removing object A, object B will have a positive charge since it has lost
electrons. The charge of object A remains negatively charged whereas, the neutral object becomes
positively charged. During charging by induction, the grounding wire must be removed before the charge
rod. After the charging process, the two bodies will have opposite charges.
Electroscope
An electroscope is a simple device used to detect the presence of an electric charge on a body. It consists
of a brass rod, on which brass cap is mounted at the top and a brass plate at the bottom, with thin leaves
of gold or aluminum foil attached to the brass plate. The brass rod is mounted on a metal case, and
supported by a plug of insulating material. It is used to:
 identify the sign of charges on a material;
 check whether an object is charged or not;
 sort out conductors and non-conductors ( insulators); and
 measure the amount of charge on an object relatively.
When a positively charged rod is brought close to (but not touching), the neutral plate of the electroscope,
the negative charge in the gold foil, metal rod, and metal plate would be attracted to the positively charged
rod. The induced positive charged on the gold leaves forces them apart, since like charges repel.
Electrical Discharge

4
The process of removing electric charges from a charged object. A charged body loses its charges by
touching it with a conductor. When a body is discharged, it becomes neutral. Lightning is a very large
electrical discharge caused by induction. In a thunderstorm, a charged area, usually negative builds up at
the base of the cloud. The negative charge at the base of the cloud creates a temporarily positive charged
area on the ground through induction process. When enough charge has built up, a path of charged
particles is formed. For lightning to happen, charges in the clouds must build up to the point where air
cannot keep them separated from the ground. It results in a lightning strike called thunder. The process of
providing a safe way of discharging excess charges flow harmlessly into the Earth’s surface is called
grounding. This can be done by fitting a lightning rod at the top of buildings and TV and mobile antennas
antenna connected to metal cables that conduct electric charge into the ground. The idea is it should get
struck before the building and conduct the surge of charge harmlessly into the Earth’s surface.
Electrostatic force
Objects with opposite charges attract each other, and objects with similar charges repel each other. The
force exerted on one charge by another is called electrostatic force or Coulomb force. Coulomb’s Law
states that: The magnitude of the attraction or repulsion force between two point charges is directly
proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of separation.
qq
F  k 1 22
r
Where k is proportionality constant which is = 8.9875 x 109 Nm2/ C2  9x109 Nm2/ C2
Examples:
1. Suppose that one object has a charge of + 4coulombs before it is in contact with an object which
has a charge of +8 coulombs. Calculate the force of repulsion if they are separated by 10cm after
contact.
2. A 6C charge is located at 6m from a - 8C charge. Find the magnitude of electrostatic force
exerted by one charge on another.
3. Two charges 2C and -4C are separated 30cm apart from each other. What is the magnitude and
direction of the force that one charge exerts on the other?
4. Calculate the electrostatic force between a negative charge of 4C and a positive charge of 6C
when placed 0.12m apart from each other.
5. Suppose two charges are located 10cm apart and feel an attractive force of 12N. What will be the
force between the two charges when they are 5cm apart?
Electric field
Electric field is a region of space where one charge experiences a force of attraction or repulsion on the
surrounding charge.
Electric field is visualized by drawing imaginary lines to indicate the magnitude and direction of the
electric field around a charge.
Properties of electric field lines
1. Electric field lines begin and end on charged objects. The only source of field is charge. Field lines
radiate away from positive charges and toward negative charges.

5
2. The density of lines in space tells us the strength of the electric field. More (dense) lines means strong
field and less lines means weak electric field.
3. Arrows show the direction of electric field. This direction is the same as the direction of the force a
positive charge would feel if placed at that point.
4. Electric field lines do not cross each other.
5. The number of lines leaving a positive charge or entering a negative charge is proportion to the
magnitude of the charge.
Electric field strength
It is defined as the electric force per unit charge. The magnitude of the electric field or electric field
strength due to a point charge (q) at a certain distance (r) is given by:
kq
E  2
r
It is a vector quantity. The SI – units of the electric field are Newton’s per coulomb (N/C). The direction
of the force it would exert is taken to be the direction of the force it would exert on a test charge. A test
charge is a positive electric charge whose charge is so small that it does not significantly disturb the
charges that create the electric field. The electric field is radial out ward from a positive charge and radial
in toward a negative point charge.
Examples
1. What is the electric field strength at a point 40cm from a +12C charge?
2. Find the magnitude of the electric field at a distance 0.2m from a point charge of 0.04C.
3. What is the electric field strength of 3  C charge at a distance of 60cm?
A) 7.5 x103N/C B) 45 x103N/C C) 27 x103N/C D) 18x103N/C
4. Determine the electric field intensity midway between charges of 1pC and -4pC which are
separated by 6cm.

6
7