Electro Statics What am I missing?

[tallbus1]

Electro Statics...What am I missing!?

Homework Statement

A balloon rubbed against denim gains a charge of 8.0microcoulumbs (I can't do the sign ). What is the electric force between the denim and balloon when the two are separated by a distance of 5.0 cm?

Homework Equations

Coulumb's law: Fe = Kc q1q2/r^2

The Attempt at a Solution

Ok, so I was given q1: 8mc I know Kc: 8.99*10^9 and I know R: 5 cm This leaves q2, how am I to know what the charge of q2 is? Could it be the standard 1.60219 * 10^-19? Or is the charge transferred?

 

[jhae2.718]

I would assume that both the balloon and denim were originally neutral. Then you can use the Law of Conservation of Charge (charge cannot be created or destroyed; i.e. Q_initial=Q_final) to find the other charge.

 

[tallbus1]

So then we assume that the charge of the balloon has a charge of -8mc? We have only touched the Conservation of Charge conceptually...

 

[tallbus1]

Oh, alright! Thanks

 

[rwisz]

It seems like you are missing some information about the system to be able to calculate the electric force. In order to use Coulomb's law, you need to know the charges of both objects involved. In this case, you have the charge of the balloon (q1), but you do not have the charge of the denim (q2). This missing information could be the reason why you are unable to find a solution.

Additionally, it is important to note that the charge of an object can be transferred through rubbing, so it is possible that the charge of the denim is not the standard 1.60219 * 10^-19. It would be helpful to have more information about the experiment to accurately determine the charge of the denim.

In conclusion, it seems like you are missing the charge of the denim in order to calculate the electric force between the two objects. It would be beneficial to have more information about the experiment to accurately determine the charge of the denim and solve the problem.