Q&A- Static Electricity

A)Electric charge
Q-A.1: A nail with 17 gms is charged with -2.24x10-13 C. How many excess electrons are there in the nail ?
Consider elementary charge e=1.6x10-19 C.

Q-2: An amoeba has 1.001016 protons and a net charge of 0.300 pC. (a) How many fewer electrons are there
than protons? (b) If you paired them up, what fraction of the protons would have no electrons?
Ans: (a) 0.3001012 C /1.61019 C/e = 1.88106 fewer electrons (b) 1.88106 /1.001016 = 1.881010

B) Electric field and force

Q- B.1: A Solid metallic sphere is placed in a uniform electric field. Which of the lines A, B, C and D shows
the correct path and why ?

Ans: Path (A) is wrong as lines of force do not start or end normally on the surface of a conductor. Path (B) and (C) are
wrong as lines of force should not exist inside a conductor. Also lines of froce are not normal to the surface of conductor.
Path (D) represents the correct situation as here line of force does not exist inside the conductor and starts and ends
normally on its surface

Q- B.2: A metallic slab is introduced between the two plates of a charged parallel plate capacitor. Sketch the electric
lines of force between the plates.

Ans: Keeping in mind the following properties :

1. Lines of force start from positive charge and end on negative charge.
2. Lines of force start and end normally on the surface of a conductor.
3. Lines of force do not exist inside a conductor (as field inside a conductor is zero)

Q-B.3 : which of the following diagram correctly depicts the electric field lines between three point charges ?
Ans:
a. Wrong since no of lines are proportional to their charge amount ( 4 lines, 2 lines, 2 lines), but should
not cross.
b. No of lines for same charge q and q cant be 2 and 1.
c. OK
d. Wrong- No of lines OK but pattern is not ok.

Q-B.4: As shown in the following drawing, a positively charged particle is moving horizontally when it enters
the region between two parallel plate capacitor. When the particle is within the capacitor , which of the
following vectors, if any, are parallel to the field lines in the capacitor

(a) Its displacement (b) its velocity (c) its linear momentum (d) its acceleration

Ans: d) acceleration- the electric field is perpendicular to the velocity vector and the path is parabola like
projectile motion.

Q-B-1: As shown below, a charge A of mass m remains stationary between two oppositely charged plates
having potential difference V. What will be magnitude of charge of A.

(a) (d gV)/m (b) m g/d V (c) m g d/V (d) m/(d g V)

Ans: mgd/V

Q-3: Find the ratio of electrostatic force and gravitational force between a pair of electrons. At what ratio of
e/m, the two forces will be equal.

Ans: |Fe/Fg|=1/(4oG) x (e/m)2=4.2x1042, e/m=(4oG)=8.6x10-11

Q-4: Atomic number of copper is 29, its atomic weight is 63.5 gm/mole. If two pieces of copper having weight
10 gm are taken and on one of the pieces 1 electron per 1000 atom is transferred to the other piece and there
after this these pieces are placed 10 cm apart, then what will be the coulomb force between them.

Ans:
Q- What would be the interaction force between two copper spheres, each of mass 1 g, separated by the distance
1 m, if the total electronic charge in them differed from the total charge of the nuclei by one per cent?
Ans:

Q- Two small equally charged spheres, each of mass m, are suspended from the same point by silk threads of
length l. The distance between the spheres x << l. Find the rate dq/dt with which the charge leaks off each sphere
if their approach velocity varies as v = a/sqrt(x), where a is a constant.
Q- A thin wire ring of radius r has an electric charge q. What will be the increment of the force stretching the wire if
a point charge q0 is placed at the ring's centre?
Q-4: Three equal charges (Q, each) are placed on the vertices of an equilateral triangle of side a. What is the resultant
force on any one charge due to the other two?

Ans:
Q-5: Five point charges, each of value +q are placed on five vertices of a regular hexagon of side L m. What is the
magnitude of the force on a point charge of value -q coulomb placed at the center of the hexagon?

Ans:

Q- 6: Ifa solid metal sphere and a hollow metal sphere of equal diameters are each given the same charge, the
electric field (E) midway between the center and the surface is
A) greater for the solid sphere than for the hollow sphere.
B) equal in magnitude for both, but one is opposite in direction from the other.
C) zero for both.
D) greater for the hollow sphere than for the solid sphere.

Q-7: A negatively charged rod is brought near one end of an uncharged metal bar. The end of the metal bar
farthest from the charged rod will be charged
A) neutral. B) negative.
C) positive. D) none of the given answers

Q-8: Two identical point charges +Q are located on the y-axis at y=+d/2 and y=-d/2, as shown in the Figure. A
third charge q is placed on the x-axis. At what distance from the origin is the net force on q a maximum ?

Ans:
Q- Two similar helium filled balloons, each carrying charge Q, are tied to a 30 g weight and are floating at
equilibrium as shown in the figure. Find Q.

Ans: 21.2 C

Q- A particle of mass M and charge q is at rest at the mid point between two other fixed similar charges each
of magnitude Q placed a distance 2d apart. The system is collinear as shown in figure. The particle is now
displaced by a small amount x(x<<d) along the line joining the two charges and is left to itself. It will now
oscillate about the mean position with what time period?(0= permittivity of free space)
Q- A positive point charge 50 C is located in the plane xy at the point with radius vector r 0 = 2i + 3j, where i and j
are the unit vectors of the x and y axes. Find the vector of the electric field strength E and its magnitude at the
point with radius vector r = 8i - 5j. Here r0 and r are expressed in metres.

Q-

Ans: (2) due to redistribution of charges, effective d will reduce

Q- A thin half-ring of radius R = 20 cm is uniformly charged with a total charge q = 0.70 nC. Find the magnitude of
the electric field strength at the curvature centre of this half-ring.
Ans:
Q- A thin wire ring of radius r carries a charge q. Find the magnitude of the electric field strength on the axis of the
ring as a function of distance l from its centre. Investigate the obtained function at l >> r. Find the maximum
strength magnitude and the corresponding distance l. Draw the approximate plot of the function E(l).
Ans:
Q- A system consists of a thin charged wire ring of radius R and a very long uniformly charged thread oriented
along the axis of the ring, with one of its ends coinciding with the centre of the ring. The total charge of the ring is
equal to q. The charge of the thread (per unit length) is equal to . Find the interaction force between the ring and
the thread
Q- A thin non-conducting ring of radius R has a linear charge density = 0 cos , where 0 is a constant, is the
azimuthal angle. Find the magnitude of the electric field strength
(a) at the centre of the ring;
(b) on the axis of the ring as a function of the distance x from its centre. Investigate the obtained function at x >>
R.
Q- A thin straight rod of length 2a carrying a uniformly distributed charge q is located in vacuum. Find the
magnitude of the electric field strength as a function of the distance r from the rod's centre along the straight line
(a) perpendicular to the rod and passing through its centre;
(b) coinciding with the rod's direction (at the points lying outside the rod).
Investigate the obtained expressions at r >> a.
Ans:

Q- A sphere of radius r carries a surface charge of density = ar, where a is a constant vector, and r is the radius
vector of a point of the sphere relative to its centre. Find the electric field strength vector at the centre of the
sphere.
Ans:

Q- Suppose the surface charge density over a sphere of radius R depends on a polar angle as = 0 cos ,
where 0 is a positive constant. Show that such a charge distribution can be represented as a result of a small
relative shift of two uniformly charged balls of radius R whose charges are equal in magnitude and opposite in
sign. Resorting to this representation, find the electric field strength vector inside the given sphere.

Ans:

Q- In a cathode ray cylindrical tube of 7 cm radius, electrons travel at 1/10th of speed of light of velocity.
Given there are 6x1012 electrons/cm3, find the current in amp.
Ans: I=n.A.v.Q
So I=6x1012. (22/7).49.(3x108)(1.6x10-19) Amp

Q- How would be the graph of I-V for current.

Q: Find the current in the circuit under three conditions:

a) Resistance of wire connecting has zero resistance
b) Wire -1 and 2 are same material and have similar resistance
c) Wire-1 and 2 are different and have different resistance