Electrical Charge and Force

Lab Day 8: Electrical Charges and Forces

In this experiment, we used two sticky tapes and held them next to each other with the non sticky sides together and the two tapes started to repel away from each other.

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We further labeled the bottom side B and the top T. When the top strips were brought together, they were attracting while the bottom strip started to repel. The interaction between the top and bottom strip attracted slightly.

This clip showed the attraction of the top and the repelling of the bottom

Below is the summary of the two sticky tapes and how they attracted and repelled each other dependent on the interaction of charges. 

Since we have observed that there are forces between charged objects seen in the scotch tape interactions, we further analyzed the idea of a charged ball that is hanging where the first ball is slowly going near the hanging ball making it repel. 

The force can be calculated using the length L and the angle that is formed as forces are acting on the ball. Below showed the symbolic representations of the forces acting on the hanging ball where the force of separation was found. 

We used the proposed idea based on our symbolic calculations above to analyze the video to create a Force vs, Separation distance graph. The movie showed a ball that was charged hanging on a string where another ball (also charged) was going toward the hanging ball causing it to repel.

Graph of Force Vs. Separation Distance

Graphical Analysis:

The graph showed that the relationship between force and separation distance was inversely proportional.The best fit was F=A/X^2 where the graph shows that the force is proportional to 1/R^2. Primarily we can observe that the charges or signs can be negative on both of the balls or positive since it was seen to repel. 

The calculated values are shown below where we can see that using Coulumb's law, the percent difference is found to be 11%. There are sources of error found which can be caused by the inaccurate plotting of the points of the ball at each point manually by "eyeballing".

Calculations/conclusions of Electrical Force Law Analysis 

In this setup we have electrical Charges
 from the ball from electricity

We can tell by our calculations that electrical force is definitely greater than gravity which is consistent with our experiment. When we put two plates on top, they went up and away from the ball which was run by electrical forces.

Conclusion:
In conclusion of today's experiments, there are charges caused by electrical forces that cause an object to either attract or repel.  The electrical force is derived from the charge on one particle acting on another particle. When we analyze the ideal of electrical force, we can use Coulumb's law which allows us to measure the electrical force which is found to be greater than gravity.