The Physics Of Electric Force - 1011 Words

Theory Electric force can be defined as an attraction or repulsion between two particles that is directly related to the charge of the two particles. So when a different voltage is applied to two metal plates the opposite charges that are applied produce an attraction. To be able to figure out the magnitude of the field on these plates one must know the charges, surface area, and the vacuum dielectric constant. With knowing the value of the electric field one can then calculate the value of the electric force that is being experienced between the two plates. Experimental Description This experiment consisted of four separate parts. The first part was to adjust the balance to make sure it was working properly, and to measure its†¦show more content†¦That value was .0161m^2. Next we had to check the check the voltage for deflection by turning on the power supply and adjusting the voltage. Once everything checked out properly we were able to move onto the next section. In part 2 of the experiment we had to measure the deflection of the plates with the laser. First we turned on the laser and measured the initial ho value of .52m, then we touched the two plates together for the ht value and that number was .44m. Next we measured the distance from the mirror to the ruler and it was 1.67m. With all of these values from the first two parts we could plug them into the formula yo=(ho-ht)(X/2D). This will give us the distance between our plates so when we plugged those values into that equation we got yo to equal .00515m which is a very cl ose value to our original y estimate of .005m. In part three of the experiment we had measure deflection using mass, so we started by placing .0001 kg in the center of the pan and then plugging it into the formula F=mg to find out the force it was exerting on the top pan. This force was .00098N and it pushed the pans about half of the way closer together from the original spot. Then the h1 value was obtained by reading the spot of the laser on the ruler. This was repeated three times and we got h1 values of .475m, .473m, and .475m. These values were then plugged into formula y1=(h1-ht)(x/2D). The three-y1 values were .00225m, .00212m,