Coulombs Law and the Permittivity of Free Space

July 2, 2012 Purpose This experiment is designed to: To verify Coulombs Law To measure Theory Any two charged objects will create a force on one another; this force is commonly referred to as the electric force. The magnitude of the electric force on any two objects at rest is inversely proportional to the square of the distances between them as well as proportional to the product of the two charges. The direction of the electric force is along the line connecting the charges, and is repulsive if the signs of the forces are the same and attractive if the signs are opposite. These observations for two particles at rest are summarized by Coulombs law: (1) Where is the force on charge 1 by charge 2, are the magnitudes of the charges, is the magnitude of the distance between the two charges and is the unit vector in the direction pointing from charge 2 to charge 1. is a constant referred to as the permittivity of free space, with the accepted value of 8.55 x when the charges are in a vacuum.

However, charge is a difficult quantity to measure. In using Gausss law, force can be written in measureable quantities: (2) | | A Coulomb balance is an apparatus consisting of two horizontal aluminum plates, the upper one being free to pivot while the lower one is mounted. When DC voltage is applied the upper plate moves toward the lower plate. After adjusting the DC voltage a small weight must be added to center of the upper plate so that the upper plate returns to its original position, parallel to the lower plate. Equation (2) only holds true when the voltage is at its initial point, , when there is no added weight. The gravitational force must now be included when finding the total force: | | After solving for m:
1 (3)

(4)

Using linear regression, graph of m versus

should be a straight line with the slope of

Procedure Description of Apparatus: A Coulomb balance is used to measure force between two charged objects. The balance consists of two horizontal plates, the lower one mounted and the upper one free to move on a pivot. A counter weight is attached to the upper plate to adjust its position. A mirror is mounted on the Coulomb balance so a laser can be projected to a nearby wall. A circuit around the Coulomb balance is set so that different voltages can be applied to the balance ultimately changing the position of the upper plate. In the circuit a resistor is added so that if during the experiment the upper plate comes in contact with the lower plate a short circuit will be prevented. Steps: 1. Measure the dimensions of the upper plate using a ruler as well as the width of the spacer using a micrometer. 2. Place the space between the upper and lower horizontal plate on the Coulomb balance and adjust until the upper plate is parallel with the lower plate. Place an object (ex: a pen) on the top plate and turn on the laser and mark the position on the laser beam on the nearest wall. Remove the object added. 3. Connect the power supply to a resistor and a switch and complete the circuit by connecting this to the Coulomb balance. Note: One side of the power supply must be connected to the upper plate while the other must go to the lower plate. Connect the voltmeter upper and lower plates as well. 4. Remove the spacer and set the power supply to the highest possible amount. Adjust the counterweight so that the laser still points at the previously marked spot. 5. Add weights in 5 mg increments. For each added weight decrease the voltage until the laser points to the previously marked spot.

Data:
2

Length of upper plate: .128 m Width of upper plate: .127 m Area of upper plate: .01625 Distance between plates: 3.03mm
Coulomb Balance Weight and Voltage V^2 Weight Added Voltage Weight Added (Milligrams) (Volts) (Volts^2 ) (Kilograms) 0 278.5 77562.25 0 5 239 57121 0.000005 10 182.2 33196.84 0.00001 15 133 17689 0.000015 20 49.8 2480.04 0.00002 25 6.87 47.1969 0.000025

Graph
0.00003 0.000025 0.00002 Weight Added (kilograms) 0.000015 0.00001 0.000005 0 0 -0.000005 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 y = -2.95E-10x + 2.18E-05 R = 9.56E-01

Linear Regression of Mass vs Voltage^2

Voltage (volts^2)

Calculations Using the equation (4) and the linear regression results we find that: ( )( )

Results According to the theory, the accepted value of collected, our estimation for the accepted valve. Discussion The graph mass versus appears to be very well fit by a straight line ( ). This matches our prediction based on the theory that the linear regression would form a straight line. We used linear regression to calculate the slope of the best linear line through the data. The slope is necessary to estimate as shown in the calculations section. The calculated varies from the accepted value. This error could be due to the air current flowing in the room as well as the fact the equipment used was not the most accurate. We did not account for a wind force during our calculations. Throughout the experiment it is possible that the Coulomb upper and lower plates fell out of alignment, or the laser was slightly moved. Since these numbers are on such a small scale, an unnoticeable misalignment in the Coulomb balance somewhere during the experiment may have a large effect in the overall accuracy of the estimation of . In addition the equations used were for uniformed electric fields however this is not a uniformed electric field. While we made the distance between the two plates small to minimize the effect this might have on the results this may account for some of the error as well. Based on our results, we can conclude that we should use a more accurate method of calculating and try to eliminate the sources of error. We did show that using a Coulomb balance we can model the effect of Coulombs law using measurable quantities, such as voltage. Since charge is a difficult quantity to measure this method, or a similar one is necessary for gathering data relating to charge. is is . From the data , which is approximately a 63% error from

Questions
4

Q1: Equation (3) for the electric field of a plane of charge is exact only for an infinite plane (with q/A replaced by the surface charge density ). Explain why, by making d small, we make only a relatively small error by using it for our planes of finite size. A1: The electric field on the horizontal plates is not uniform. The equation used is for a uniformed field. Making d small serves to validate the calculation. Q2: We discussed the meaning of the permittivity in a material as an adjustment to the effective force between two charges due to the presence of other charges: ( )

In class we have also learned that the electric field is zero inside a conductor in static equilibrium. What must be the value of for such conductor? A2: The force would be extremely small for this situation therefore must increase to infinity.