Question

40 PTS

Jill rubs two latex balloons against her hair, causing the balloons to become charged negatively with 2.06 x 10 ^16 C. She holds them a distance of 0.70 m apart. what is the electric force between the two balloons


PLEASE SHOW WORK!

Answer 1

The electrostatic force between two charged objects is given by:

`F=k (q_1 q_2)/(r^2)`
where
k is the Coulomb's constant
q1 and q2 are the charges of the two objects
r is their separation

In this problem, the charge of each balloon is
`q_1=q_2=-2.06 \cdot 10^(16)C` and their separation is
`r=0.70 m`, therefore the electrostatic force between the balloons is

`F=(8.99 \cdot 10^9 Nm^2C^(-2)) ((-2.06 \cdot 10^(16)C)^2)/((0.70m)^2) =7.8 \cdot 10^(42) C`
and the force is repulsive, since the two balloons have same sign charge.