Static Electricity, Electric Force & Capacitors – Special thanks to Wendy Maley, Duluth High School.
Concepts
1. List some insulators and conductors.
2. Why will a wool sock taken from a clothes dryer sometimes cling to other clothes?
3. How does the actual charge of an electron differ the actual charge of a proton?
4. If you scuff electrons from the floor onto your feet while walking, are you now negatively or positively charged?
5. Why does a charged object lose its charge when it is touched to the ground?
6. If you comb your hair on a dry day (just after washing it to remove natural oils and drying it thoroughly), the comb can become positively charged and small bits of paper will be attracted to the comb. Explain why.
7. A metallic object is given a positive charge.
a. Does the mass of the object increase, decrease, or stay the same? Explain.
b. What happens to the mass of the object if it is given a negative charge by induction? Explain.
8. What are electric field lines?
9. Draw the electric field lines between
c. two positive charges.
d. two unlike charges.
e. Two oppositely charge parallel plates.
10. How is the direction of the electric field defined?
11. How is the strength of the electric field indicated with electric field lines?
12. Sketch
f. the electric field produced by a positive point charge (+q).
g. the electric field due to a positive point charge that is twice the size (+2q) as the previous charge. Make the number of field lines proportional to the change in charge.
13. What will happen to the electric potential energy of a charged particle in an electric field when it is released and free to move?
14. What is a capacitor?
15. Can you change the Capacitance of a capacitor by changing the voltage across it? Explain.
16. Two charges (q1 and q2) are separated by a distance (d) and exert a force (F) on each other. What new...