Electrostatic Repulsion of Charged Pith Balls Hanging from Strings

Abstract

Two positively charged pith balls hang from a nail at the end of equal-length strings in Earth's surface gravitational field. The problem consists in finding each of the hanging angles when the balls do not necessarily have the samemass or charge. The solution is an excellent exercise in developing two skills: wisely choosing the coordinate axes in a free-body diagram, and correctly interpreting the roots and limits of a numerical solution. The treatment is accessible to undergraduate physics majors in their first or second year of physics courses.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA551171

Entities

People

  • Carl E. Mungan

Organizations

  • United States Naval Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Agreements
  • Electronic Mail
  • Energy
  • Equations
  • Fungi
  • Gravitational Fields
  • Information Operations
  • Instructors
  • Inverse Problems
  • Mathematical Programming
  • Potential Energy
  • Standards
  • Students
  • Triangles
  • United States Naval Academy

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Educational Psychology
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.