Question

Two small spheres with mass 10 gm and charge q, are suspended from a point by threads of length L=0.22m. What is the charge on each sphere if the threads make an angle θ of 15 degrees with the vertical?

Answer 1

Answer:

$q=1.95*10^{-7}C$

Explanation:

According to the free-body diagram of the system, we have:

$\sum F_y: Tcos(15^\circ)-mg=0(1)\\\sum F_x: Tsin(15^\circ)-F_e=0(2)$

So, we can solve for T from (1):

$T=\frac{mg}{cos(15^\circ)}(3)$

Replacing (3) in (2):

$(\frac{mg}{cos(15^\circ)})sin(15^\circ)=F_e$

The electric force ($F_e$) is given by the Coulomb's law. Recall that the charge q is the same in both spheres:

$(\frac{mg}{cos(15^\circ)})sin(15^\circ)=\frac{kq^2}{r^2}(4)$

According to pythagoras theorem, the distance of separation (r) of the spheres are given by:

$sin(15^\circ)=\frac{\frac{r}{2}}{L}\\r=2Lsin(15^\circ)(5)$

Finally, we replace (5) in (4) and solving for q:

$mgtan(15^\circ)=\frac{kq^2}{(2Lsin(15^\circ))^2}\\q=\sqrt{\frac{mgtan(15^\circ)(2Lsin(15^\circ))^2}{k}}\\q=\sqrt{\frac{10*10^{-3}kg(9.8\frac{m}{s^2})tan(15^\circ)(2(0.22m)sin(15^\circ))^2}{8.98*10^{9}\frac{N\cdot m^2}{C^2}}}\\q=1.95*10^{-7}C$