Calculating Electrostatic Force and Charge Imbalance in Tiny Water Drops

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on calculating the electrostatic force and charge imbalance in two identical tiny water drops, each with a charge of -1.04 x 10-16 C and a center-to-center separation of 1.5 cm. The magnitude of the electrostatic force between the drops is determined to be 4.32159 x 10-19 N. To find the number of excess electrons on each drop, the total charge is divided by the elementary charge of an electron, resulting in 650 excess electrons per drop.

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  • Understanding of Coulomb's Law for electrostatic force calculations
  • Familiarity with the concept of electric charge and elementary charge (1.6 x 10-19 C)
  • Basic knowledge of spherical geometry and separation distances
  • Ability to perform scientific notation calculations
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  • Learn about the properties of electric charge and charge quantization
  • Explore the concept of electric fields around charged objects
  • Investigate the effects of charge imbalance in various materials
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Two tiny, spherical water drops, with identical charges of -1.04 10-16 C, have a center-to-center separation of 1.5 cm.
(a) What is the magnitude of the electrostatic force acting between them?
(b) How many excess electrons are on each drop, giving it its charge imbalance?

Ok so, i know that the answer for A is 4.32159e-19.
However, I'm not sure how to do B.
I think its something like the total charge divided by a single charge. I'm not sure though.
 
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for b you are correct. All you do is divide the charge on the drop by the charge on an electron.
 
650.

Thanks you.
 

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