Electric and Gravitational Forces & Fields

[811 trolley]

I'm getting pretty frustrated with this equation, and I'm not sure what I'm really doing. I've gone to the teacher for help, but as soon as I left school and came home, I've drawn a blank about what he told me..

"At a point in Earth's atmosphere, the electric field is 150 N/C downward and the gravitational field is 9.80 N/kg downward.

a) Determine the electric force on a proton (p⁺) placed at this point.

b) Determine the gravitational force on the proton at this point. The proton has a mass of 1.67 x 10^-27 kg."

For a), I'm pretty sure you use the formula:
E = F_e/q, and then manipulate it to find F_e, right?

I tried doing this:
F_e = q * E
F_e = 9.80 N/kg * 150 N/C
I get F_e = 1470 N, when in the back of the textbook it says I should get 2.40 x 10^-17 N
So I'm not getting the answer that it says in the textbook. I was wondering if I did something wrong with 'q', because isn't that the charge, which should be in coulombs? Am I supposed to use the gravitational field and the mass of the proton to find the charge?

I also tried this:
F_e = (1.67 x 10^-27 * 9.80 N/kg) * 150 N/C
and I got F_e = 2.50 x 10^-24 N
Still the wrong answer.
Maybe I'm entering it wrong into my calculator?

As for b), I was told to use:
g = F_g/m, then manipulate it to this:
F_g = mg
F_g = 1.67 x 10^-27 * 9.80 N/kg
F_g = 1.64 x 10^-26 N
which is right, so I don't really know why I typed this all down! Haha

 

[hage567]

Fe = q * E
Fe = 9.80 N/kg * 150 N/C

q here is charge. What is the charge of a proton? Don't worry about "g" for this part of the question. It doesn't have anything to do with the electric force.

 

[811 trolley]

q here is charge. What is the charge of a proton? Don't worry about "g" for this part of the question. It doesn't have anything to do with the electric force.

Oh, yeah. So instead of 1.67 x 10^-27 N/kg, I use 1.60 x 10^-19 C.

F_e = 1.60 x 10^-19 C * 150 N/C
F_e = 2.40 x 10^-17 N

Thanks! I get so frustrated, I seem to just miss one little thing that screws up the answer! I can't believe I did that..

 

[hage567]

Yeah, it happens!