Question

The imaginary sport of "electrodisc" involves players zipping around a rubber field on hover boards and smashing identical charge-carrying metal discs about using wooden sticks. Points are scored when two discs collide and a charge transfer takes place. The field and the sticks are both insulators, so they only transfers of charge occur between the discs. Disc A, with net charge, QA=−2μC, and Disk B, with net charge, QB=+15μC, were already in play when Disc C, which was initially neutral, was added to the field. During the next quarter, A hit B, then C hit A, and finally C hit B. What is the final charge on each of disc at the end of the quarter, assuming that the three discs act like an isolated system?

Answer 1

The total charge of the three discs in the game of electrodisc, after the interactions have taken place, remains the same as the initial total charge, due to the law of conservation of charge. However, without further information about how the charge is transferred during each hit, we cannot determine the final charges of the individual discs.

Step-by-step explanation:

The sport described, electrodisc, is essentially a physical manifestation of the law of conservation of charge. This law states that the total amount of electric charge in a system remains constant, even if interactions and transformations occur within the system.

For this problem, the system is made up of Discs A, B, and C. If we add up the charges of the discs at the beginning it was QA+QB+QC = -2μC + 15μC + 0μC = 13μC. After the hits, no external charge has been added or removed, so by the conservation of charge, the total charge remains 13μC. However, we don't have information on how the charge is distributed among the discs after each hit, so we cannot determine the final charges of the individual discs, only the total charge of the three discs together.

Learn more about Conservation of Charge