GAYATRI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Physics
Estimate the Charge Induced on Each
One of the Two Identical Pith Balls
Suspended in a Vertical Plane by
Coulomb’s law.
YATHARTH
XII (2025-2026)
INDEX
1)Certificate
2)Acknowledgement
3)Introduction
4)Coulomb’s law
5)Experiment
6)Materials Required
7)concept
8)Procedures
9)Observations
10)Reference
Certificate
This is to certify that Yatharth of class
XII has successfully completed the
project on “Estimating the Charge
Induced on Each One of the Two
Identical Pith Balls Suspended in a
Vertical Plane by Coulomb’s law”
Under the guidance of Mr Arpit Shukla
during the academic year 2025-26
Acknowledgement
I wish to express my deep gratitude and sincere
thanks to Mr Arpit Shukla for his encouragement
and for all the facilities that he provided for this
project work.
I extend my hearty thanks to Mr. Arpit Shukla my
Physics Teacher, who guided me to do this project
and successful completion of this project.
I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of
gratitude for his invaluable guidance, constant
encouragement, constructive comments,
sympathetic attitude and immense motivation
which has sustained my effort at all stages of this
project work.
COULOMB’S LAW
Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply
Coulomb's law, is an
experimental law of physics that calculates
the amount of forcebetween two
electrically chargedparticles at rest.
This electric force is conventionally
called the electrostatic force or
Coulomb force. Although the law was
known earlier, it was first published in
1785 by French physicist Charles-
Augustin de Coulomb. Coulomb's law
was essential to the development of the theory of
electromagnetism and may even be its starting point,as it
allowed meaningful discussions of the amount of electric
charge in a particle.
The law states that the magnitude, or absolute value, of the
attractive or repulsive electrostatic force between two point
charges is directly proportional to the product of the
magnitudes of their charges and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between [Link] discovered that
this bodies with like electrical charges repel
It follows therefore from these three tests, that the repulsive
force that the two balls – [that were] electrified with the same
kind of electricity – exert on each other, follows the inverse
proportion of the square of the distance.
Coulomb also showed that oppositely charged bodies attract
according to an inverse-square law
HISTORY
Ancient cultures around the Mediterraneanknew that certain
objects, such as rods of amber, could be rubbed with cat's fur to
attract light objects like feathers and pieces of paper. Thales of
Miletus made the first recorded description of static
electricityaround 600 BC, when he noticed that friction could make
a piece of amber attract small objects.
In 1600, English scientist William Gilbertmade a careful study of
electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the lodestoneeffect from
static electricity produced by rubbing amber. He coined the Neo-
Latin word electricus ("of amber" or "like amber", from ἤλεκτρον
[elektron], the Greek word for "amber") to refer to the property of
attracting small objects after being [Link] association gave
rise to the English words "electric" and "electricity", which made
their first appearance in print in Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia
Epidemica of 1646.
Early investigators of the 18th century who suspected that the
electrical forcediminished with distance as the force of gravity did
(i.e., as the inverse square of the distance) included Daniel
Bernoulli and Alessandro Volta, both of whom measured the force
between plates of a capacitor, and Franz Aepinus who supposed
the inverse-square law in 1758.
Based on experiments with electrically charged spheres, Joseph
Priestley of England was among the first to propose that electrical
force followed an inverse-square law, similar to Newton's law of
universal gravitation. However, he did not generalize or elaborate
on [Link] 1767, he conjectured that the force between charges
varied as the inverse square of the distance.
Experiment
T o estimate the charge induced on each of
the two identical styro foam (or pith) balls
suspended in a vertical plane by making use
of coulomb's law.
Materials Required
1. SMALL SIZE IDENTICAL BALLS (PITCH OR SOFT PLASTIC)
2. PHYSICAL BALANCE OR ELECTRONIC BALANCE
3. HALF METER SCALE
4. COTTON THREAD
5. STAND
6. GLASS ROD (OR PLASTIC ROD)
7. SILK CLOTH (OR WOOLEN CLOTH)
2 3
4
5 6 7
Concept
The fundamental concept in electrostatics is electrical charge. We are all familiar with the
fact that rubbing two materials together - for example, a rubber comb on cat fur —
produces a "static" charge. This process is called charging by friction. Surprisingly, the
exact physics of the process of charging by friction is poorly understood. However, it is
known that the making and breaking of contact between the two materials transfers the
charge.
The charged particles which make up the universe come in three kinds: positive,
negative, and neutral. Neutral particles do not interact with electrical forces. Charged
particles exert electrical and magnetic forces on one another, but if the charges are
stationary, the mutual force is very simple in form and is given by Coulomb's Law:
where F is the electrical force between any two stationary charged particles with charges q1 and
q2(measured in coulombs), r is the separation between the charges (measured in meters), and k is
a constant of nature (equal to 9×10° Nm2/C2 in SI units).
The study of the Coulomb forces among arrangements of stationary charged particles is called
electrostatics. Coulomb's Law describes three properties of the electrical force:
The force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges, and is
directed along the straight line that connects their centers.
The force is proportional to the product of the magnitude of the charges.
Two particles of the same charge exert a repulsive force on
each other, and two particles of opposite charge exert an attractive force on each other.
Procedure
1. Weight the mass of each identical pitch balls by balance and note down it.
2. Tie the balls with two silk or cotton threads and suspend at a point on a stand or a
rigid support. Measure the length of threads by half meter scale. The length of threads
should be equal. Note down the length.
3. Rub the glass rod with silk cloth and touch with both balls together so that the
balls acquired equal charge.
4. Suspend the balls freely and the balls stay away a certain distance between the
balls when they become stationary.
Note down the distance.
5. Touch any one suspended ball with other uncharged third ball and takes the third
ball away and repeat the step 4.
6. Touch other suspended ball with other uncharged fourth ball and takes the fourth
ball away and repeat the step.
Observation
1. Mass of each ball(m) = g
2. Radius of each ball (r)= mm
3. Length of each thread(l) = cm
Serial No. Charge on A(q1) Charge on B(q2) Distance b\w balls(x)
Calculations: By using the relation
References
1. Wikipedia contributors. (2025, December 25). Coulomb's
law. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:24,
January 8, 2026, from [Link]
title=Coulomb%27s_law&oldid=1329329443
2. [Link]
charge-induced-on-each-one-of-the-two-identical-styrofoam-
balls-suspended-in-a-vertical-plane-by-making-use-of- coulomb-s-
law
3. Britannica Editors. "space charge". Encyclopedia
Britannica, 22 Sep. 2006,
[Link]
charge. Accessed 8 January 2026.
4. Britannica Editors. "electric charge". Encyclopedia
Britannica, 11 Dec. 2025,
[Link]
charge. Accessed 8 January 2026.
5. Britannica Editors. "Coulomb force". Encyclopedia
Britannica, 13 Nov. 2025,
[Link]
force. Accessed 8 January 2026.
6. Britannica Editors. "Charles-Augustin de Coulomb".
Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Aug. 2025, https://
[Link]/biography/Charles-Augustin-de-Coulomb.
Accessed 8 January 2026.
7. OpenAI. ChatGPT. “Clipart of Coulomb’s Law.” ChatGPT, 2026,