Subatomic Particles
Which subatomic particle has no charge?
Neutrons.
If an atom has 17 protons and 18 electrons, what is its overall charge?
What is attraction?
Attraction is when opposite charges are pushing together.
According to Coulomb’s Law, what two factors determine the strength of the electrostatic force between two charges?
Where in the atom are protons found?
In the nucleus.
Describe the ratio or relationship of subatomic particles in a neutral atom.
In a neutral atom, there will be the same ammount of protons and electrons.
What is repulsion?
Repulsion is when like charges pull apart from eachother.
In Coulombs Law Equation, what do the variables q1 and q2 represent?
q1 and q2 represent charges.
Which subatomic particle has the smallest mass?
Electrons.
What does polarization mean?
What electrostatic force would be observed between an object with a +5 charge and a +6 charge?
Repulsion.
If the amount of charge increases, what happens to the force?
Force increases.
Which particle is easiest to remove from an atom, and why?
Electrons are very light (1/2000th amu)
Electrons are located outside of the nuclues
Electrons move around the nucleus very quickly
You rub a balloon on your sweater, and then the balloon sticks to your sweater.
Explain this using the terms (electrons, charge, attraction/repulsion, negative, positive)
When you rub a balloon on your sweater the electrons are transfered from the sweater to the ballon. This causes the balloon to have a negative charge and the sweater to have a positive charge. The negative and positive charges are attracted to eachother, causing the balloon to stick to the sweater.
What is the effect on overall charge, if an neutral atom loses an electron? How would this atom then interact with an already negatively charged atom.
When a neutral atom loses an electron, it will become positive. This atom (positive) would attract with the negatively charged atom.
If you increased the distance between charges by 5, how does the force change?
The force will decrease by a factor of 25x.
If you change the number of protons in an atom, what happens?
Explain induced polarization, and how this is related to a charged balloon sticking to a neutral wall or piece of paper.
Induced polarization is the temporary polarization due to interactions with a charged object. When the balloon is negatively charge, and it comes in contact with the wall it causes the electrons in the atoms of the wall to shift away from the negatively charged balloon. This causes a partial positve charge from the wall when the balloon is in contact with the wall.
Why does your hair stand up when it becomes charged?
When your hair becomes charge all of the hairs on your head have the same charge. This causes the hairs to repel eachother and stand up on your head.
Calculate the electrostatic force between two objects, each with a +5 C charge that are 3 m away from eachother.
2.497 x 10^10 N.