Question

When an object such as a plastic comb is charged by rubbing it with a cloth, the net charge is typically a few microcoulombs. If that charge is 4.0 ?C , by what percentage does the mass of a 33 g comb change during charging?

Answer 1

The concept required to solve this problem is quantization of charge.

First the number of electrons will be calculated and then the total mass of the charge.

With these data it will be possible to calculate the percentage of load in the mass.

`Q= ne`

Here Q is the charge, n is the number of electrons and e is the charge on the electron

`n = (Q)/(e)`

Replacing,

`n = (4*10^(-6)C)/(1.6*10^(-19))`

`n = 2.5 * 10^(13)77`

According to the quantization of charge the charge is defined as product of the number of electron and the charge on the electron

The total mass of the charge is

`m= nm_e`

Here,

m = Mass of the charge

n = Number of electrons

`m_e` = Mass of the electron

`\text{Percentage change} = (nm_e)/(M)*100`

Replacing we have

`\text{Percentage change} = ((2.5*10^13)(9.1*10^(-28)))/(33)*100`

`\text{Percentage change} = 6.9*10^(-14) \%`