As a honeybee flies, the passing air strips electrons from its hairs, giving the bee a net positive charge. Since flowers are negatively charged, pollen then jumps onto a bee even if the bee does not physically touch the pollen particles. (a) Estimate the diameter of the central disk of a daisy. (b) If a bee has had 75,000 electrons stripped by the air, what is its net charge? (c) If this bee lands at the edge of the daisy’s central disk, determine its electric field at the far edge of the disk. Treat the bee as a thin-walled hollow sphere with its net charge distributed uniformly over its surface. (d) A pollen particle requires a force of 10 pN to dislodge from a stamen. Estimate the net charge on a pollen particle at the far end of the disk required for the particle to dislodge and jump to the bee.

As a honeybee flies, the passing air strips electrons from its hairs, giving the bee a net positive charge. Since flowers are negatively charged, pollen then jumps onto a bee even if the bee does not physically touch the pollen particles. (a) Estimate the diameter of the central disk of a daisy. (b) If a bee has had 75,000 electrons stripped by the air, what is its net charge? (c) If this bee lands at the edge of the daisy’s central disk, determine its electric field at the far edge of the disk. Treat the bee as a thin-walled hollow sphere with its net charge distributed uniformly over its surface. (d) A pollen particle requires a force of 10 pN to dislodge from a stamen. Estimate the net charge on a pollen particle at the far end of the disk required for the particle to dislodge and jump to the bee.