TH

12 CBSE
INVESTIGATORY PROJECT
PHYSICS

RIDHANKUMAR. S

1
 INDEX
1. Certificate :
04
2. Acknowledgement :
05
3. Objective :0
6
4. Charles-Augustin
deCoulomb:07
5. Coulomb’s
Law :08
6. Theory :0
9
7. Materials
required :09
8. Procedure :15
2
 9. Observations :16
10. Calculations :17
11. Result :18
12. Precautions :18
13. Sources of error :18
14. Bibliography :19

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4
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“ There are times when silence speak so much more
louder than words of praise to only as good as belittle
a person, whose words do not express, but only put a
veneer
over true feelings, which are of gratitude at this point of time.”

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my

physics teacher Miss Pooja, for her vital support,
guidance and encouragement, without which this
project would not have come forth. I would also like
to express my gratitude to the OTHER staff of the
Department of Physics for their support during the
making of this project.

5
 TO ESTIMATE
THE CHARGE
INDUCED ON
EACH OF THE
TWO IDENTICAL
STYRO FOAM
(OR PITH) BALLS
SUSPENDED IN
A VERTICAL
PLANE BY
MAKING USE OF
6
 COULOMB’S LAW

7
 Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Charles-Augustin de
Coulomb (14 June 1736 –
23 August 1806) was a
French military engineer
and physicist. He is best
known for developing
what is now known as
Coulomb's law, the
description of the
electrostatic force of
attraction and repulsion,
but also did important
work on friction.
The SI unit of electric charge, the coulomb,
was named in his honour in 1908. In 1785,
Coulomb presented his first three reports on
Electricity and Magnetism.
Coulomb describes "How to construct
and use an electric balance (torsion balance)
based on the property of the metal wires of
having a reaction torsion force proportional to the
torsion angle." Coulomb also experimentally
determined the law that explains how "two bodies
electrified of the same kind of Electricity exert on
each other."
Coulomb explained the laws of
attraction and repulsion between electric charges
8
 and magnetic poles, although he did not find any
relationship between the two phenomena. He
thought that the attraction and repulsion were
due to different kinds of fluids.

9
 Coulomb’s Law
Coulomb's law, or Coulomb's inverse-square law, is a law of physics for
quantifying Coulomb's force, or electrostatic force. Electrostatic force is
the amount of force with which stationary, electrically charged particles
either repel, or attract each other. This force and the law for quantifying
it, represent one of the most basic forms of force used in the physical
sciences, and were an essential basis to the study and development of
the theory and field of classical electromagnetism. The law was first
published in 1785 by French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb.
In its scalar form, the law is:

where k is Coulomb's constant (k ≈ 9×109 N m2 C-2), q1 and q2 are the

signed magnitudes of the charges, and the scalar r is the distance
between the charges. The force of the interaction between the charges
is attractive if the charges have opposite signs (i.e., F is negative) and
repulsive if like-signed (i.e., F is positive).
Being an inverse-square law, the law is analogous to Isaac Newton's
inverse-square law of universal gravitation. Coulomb's law can be
used to derive Gauss's law, and vice versa. The law has been tested
extensively, and all observations have upheld the laws of Newton.

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 OBJECTIVE:-
To estimate the charge induced on each of
the two identical styrofoam (or pith) balls
suspended in a vertical plane by making use
of Coulomb’s law.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:-
 Small size identical styrofoam balls
 Physical balance or electronic balance
 Meter Scale
 Teflon thread
 Stand
 Glass rod (or plastic rod)
 Silk cloth (or wool cloth)

THEORY:-
The fundamental concept in electrostatics is electrical
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. This process is called
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 charging by friction. Surprisingly, the exact physics of the
process of charging by friction is poorly

12
 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:

where F is the electrical force between any two

stationary charged particles with charges q2 and
q2(measured in coulombs), r is the separation between
the charges (measured in meters), and k is a constant of
nature (equal to 9×109 Nm2/C2 in SI units).
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:

 The force is inversely proportional to the square of the

distance between the charges, and is directed along
the straight line that connects their centers.

 The force is proportional to the product of the

magnitude of the charges.

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  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.

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 Most of the common objects we deal with in the
macroscopic (human-sized) world are electrically neutral.
They are composed of atoms that consist of negatively
charged electrons moving in quantum motion around a
positively charged nucleus. The total negative charge of
the electrons is normally exactly equal to the total
positive charge of the nuclei, so the atoms (and therefore
the entire object) have no net electrical charge. When we
charge a material by friction, we are transferring some of
the electrons from one material to another.

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 Materials such as metals are conductors. Each metal
atom contributes one or two electrons that can move
relatively freely through the material. A conductor will
carry an electrical current. Other materials such as glass
are insulators. Their electrons are bound tightly and
cannot move. Charge sticks on an insulator, but does not
move freely through it.

A neutral particle is not

affected by electrical
forces.
Nevertheless, a charged
object will attract a neutral
macroscopic object by the
process of electrical
polarization. For example,
if a negatively charged rod
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 is
brought close to an isolated, neutral insulator, the
electrons in the atoms of the insulator will be pushed
slightly away from the

17
 negative rod, and the positive nuclei will be attracted
slightly toward the negative rod. We say that the rod
has induced polarization in the insulator, but its net
charge is still zero.

The polarization of charge in the insulator is small, but

now it’s positive charge is a bit closer to the negative
rod, and its negative charge is a bit farther 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 negative 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
18
 the ground. If the wire or path is subsequently
disconnected, the conductor as a whole is left with a net
positive charge. The conductor has been charged without

19
 actually being touched with the charged rod, and its
charge is opposite that of the rod. This procedure is
called charging by induction.

Let the force between two stationary charges be F.

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 PROCEDURE:-

 Weight the mass of each identical pith balls by

balance and note down it.
 Tie the balls with two silk or cotton threads and
suspend at a point on a stand or a rigid support.
Measure the length of threads by meter scale. The
length of threads should be equal. Note down the
length.
 Rub the glass rod with silk cloth and touch with
both balls together so that the balls acquired
equal charge.
 Suspend the balls freely and the balls stay away a
certain distance between the balls when they
become stationary. Note down the distance.
 Touch any one suspended ball with other
uncharged third ball and takes the third ball away
and repeat the step 4.
 Touch other suspended ball with other uncharged
fourth ball and takes the fourth ball away and repeat
the step 4.

21
 OBSERVATION:-

 Mass of each ball, (m) = g.

1
 Radius of each ball, (r) =1mm.

 Length of each thread, =5cm.

(l)

S.NO CHARGE ON BALL A CHARGE ON BALL DISTANCE BETWEEN

() B THE BALLS
() (x cm)
1. 0 0 0

2. 5.3x10-10 5.3x10-10 2

3. 5.3x10-10 5.3x10-10 1.5

4. 2.6x10-10 5.3x10-10 1.1

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 Calculations:-
By using the relation

Calculate the charge in each case.

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 RESULTS:-
-10
The charge on each ball =5.3x10 C

PRECAUTIONS:-
 The suspended balls should not be touched
by any conducting body.
 Rub the glass rod properly with the silk cloth to
produce more charge.
 Weight the mass of the balls accurately.

SOURCES OF ERROR:-
 The balls may not be of equal size and mass.
 The distance between the balls may be measured
accurately.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Charles- Augustin_de_Coulomb
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law
 https://www.academia.edu/8562110/
Investigator y_project_physics
 Google Assistant
 https://www.slideshare.net/
rahulkushwaha06/ph ysics-investigatory-
project-class-12
 https://arihantbooks.com/cbse/
laboratory- manual-physics-class-xii
 Cortana

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