Two small identical conducting spheres are placed with theircenters 0.50 m apart

Question

Two small identical conducting spheres are placed with theircenters 0.50 m apart. One is given acharge of 10 X 10-9 C, theother a charge of -20 X 10-9C. I must find: (a) Find the electrostatic force exerted on one sphere by theother.
-answer is in Newtons (b) The spheres are connected by a conducting wire. Find theelectrostatic force between the two after equilibrium isreached.
-answer is also in Newtons Two small identical conducting spheres are placed with theircenters 0.50 m apart. One is given acharge of 10 X 10-9 C, theother a charge of -20 X 10-9C. I must find: (a) Find the electrostatic force exerted on one sphere by theother.
-answer is in Newtons (b) The spheres are connected by a conducting wire. Find theelectrostatic force between the two after equilibrium isreached.
-answer is also in Newtons

Explanation / Answer

PART A>>>    F = k q1 q2 /r2 = (9E9) (10E-9) (-20E-9) /(0.5)2 = - 7.2 E -6 Newton (disregard minus sign if just interested in magnitude of theforce) PART B>>>   Charges will flow thru the wireuntil the charges are equalized, ie, until there is the SAME amountof charge on each sphere. One way to do this is to take the average of the twoinitial charges:   [10 + ( - 20) ] / 2  =    -10 / 2 = -5 Thus, each sphere will end up with a charge of -5 E -9Coul . The force is then   F = (9E9) ( -5E-9)( -5E-9) /(0.5)2   =   9 E -7 N  final answer.

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