In last week's lab, you (perhaps!) were successful in charging two pith balls (the little styrofoam balls) with a like charge that caused them to repel. The situation looked somewhat like this: The separation of the pith balls will depend on the charge placed on them and their weight. We would like to figure out what approximate charge was placed on the pith balls. a) start by drawing a free-body diagram for each of the pith balls showing all the forces acting on each. Be careful to think about the direction of the F, force. b) to solve this problem, you will need to know the mass of the pith balls (you may ignore the mass of the strings). Styrofoam has a density of about 50 kg/m What is the approximate mass of on of the pith balls? c) Use equilibrium arguments to solve for the Coulomb's Law force on one of the pith balls. d) Now, assume the charge on both pith balls is the same, and that they are separated by about 5 cm when charged. Calculate the approximate charge on each pith ball.

In last week's lab, you (perhaps!) were successful in charging two pith balls (the little styrofoam balls) with a like charge that caused them to repel. The situation looked somewhat like this: The separation of the pith balls will depend on the charge placed on them and their weight. We would like to figure out what approximate charge was placed on the pith balls. a) start by drawing a free-body diagram for each of the pith balls showing all the forces acting on each. Be careful to think about the direction of the F, force. b) to solve this problem, you will need to know the mass of the pith balls (you may ignore the mass of the strings). Styrofoam has a density of about 50 kg/m What is the approximate mass of on of the pith balls? c) Use equilibrium arguments to solve for the Coulomb's Law force on one of the pith balls. d) Now, assume the charge on both pith balls is the same, and that they are separated by about 5 cm when charged. Calculate the approximate charge on each pith ball.