INDEX

S.NO CONTENT PAGE NO

1. Certificate 2

2. Acknowledgement 3

3. Aim 4

4. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 5-6

5. Coulomb’s Law 7-8

6. Materials Required 8

7. Theory 9-14

8. Procedure 15

9. Observations 16

10. Calculations 16

11. Result 17

12. Precautions 17

13. Sources of error 17

14. Bibliography 18

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 CERTIFICATE
THIS TO CERTIFY THAT SIDDHEE SINGHAL
OF
CLASS XII HAS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED
PHYSICS PROJECT ON THE TOPIC “TO
ESTIMATE THE
CHARGE INDUCED ON EACH ONE OF THE
TWO
IDENTICAL STYROFOAM [OR PITH] BALLS
SUSPENDED IN A VERTICAL PLANE BY
MAKING
USE OF COULOMB’S LAW” AS PRESCRIBED
BY
MR. RAVI VERMA SIR, DURING THE
ACADEMIC
YEAR 2024-2025 AS PER THE GUIDELINES
ISSUED BY
CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY
EDUCATION.

Teacher- in-charge

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Examiner’s Signature

Principal

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest

appreciation to all those who have
provided me with the opportunity to
perform this project.

I would like to thank my chemistry

teacher Mr. Ravi sir, whose valuable
guidance has helped me to complete the
project. His suggestions and instructions
have served as a major contributor
towards the successful outcome of this
project.

I take this opportunity to thank our head

of the institution, Mr. Sanju Sharma who
was always supportive and helpful in
fulfilling all our academic requirements.

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 I would like to thank my parents for
giving encouragement, assistance to me,
enthusiasm and invaluable support.

Last but not the least; I would like to thank

all my classmates who have supported me
in various aspects.

AIM
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

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 Charles-Augustin de
Coulomb

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 Charl es-

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
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 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 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.

COULOMB’S LAW

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 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 ≈ 9×10 9 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).

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 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.

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)

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 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 charging by friction. Surprisingly, the
exact physics of the process of charging by
friction is poorly 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
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 (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 centres.

• The force is proportional to the product of the

magnitude of the charges.

• 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

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 negatively charged rod is brought close to an
isolated, neutral insulator, the electrons in the
atoms of the insulator will be pushed slightly
away from the 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 its 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.

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 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
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 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.

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 OBSERVATIONS

 Mass of each ball, (m) = 200 g.

 Radius Charge on ball of each ball, (r)
= 0.2 cm.
 Length of each thread, (l) = 100 cm.
S.NO Charge on ball [μ Charge on ball [μ Distance b/w
C] C] the ball [in cm]

1. 0.00 0.00 0.4

2. 2.00 2.00 33.0
3. 2.00 2.00 26.2
4. 1.00 1.00 20.8

CALCULATIONS
By using the relation

Calculate the charge in each case.

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 RESULT

The charge on each ball = 1μc.

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/
Investigatory_project_physics
• Google Assistant
• https://www.slideshare.net/
rahulkushwaha06/physics-
investigatory-project-class-12
• https://arihantbooks.com/cbse/
laboratory-manual-physics-class-xii
• Cortana

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