Theories

Electrostatics involves phenomena that deals with stationary electric charges which arises from the forces that are
exerted on each other. The concept behind the experiment is based on several principles. First, like charges repel
and opposite charges attract each other. Objects gain charges through contact with another object. Coulomb’s
Law provides the magnitude of the electric force between two charges. The relationship is described by the

equation: where q 1 and q 2 are the charges, r is the distance between them, and k is the
proportionality constant. The SI unit for charge is the coulomb. If the charge is in coulombs and the separation in
meters, the following approximate value for k will give the force in newtons: k = 9.0 × 10 9 N · m 2/C 2.

Applications

1. What are the three ways of charging a neutral body with static electricity? Identify in which part of the
experiment each method was used?
The three ways of charging a neutral body are by friction, conduction and induction. In the first part, the
rods were charged using induction where an object is given a net electrical charge without touching
another charged object. The second part which was a comb, the electrons get transferred from one object
to another through friction. The object that transfers electrons loses negative charge and the object that
accepts electrons gains negative charge. The third part, conduction was done by the process of charging
the uncharged object by bringing it in contact with another charged object.

2. In part C, what happen to the stream of water and cooking oil when charged balloon was brought near it?
explain the result you obtained.
The stream of water was pulled towards the charged balloon. The positive charge of the water attracted
the electrons brought about by the charging of the balloon with the hair. The electrons gained in the
rubbing caused the protons in the water to be attracted with the the ballloon.

In the characterization of molecules, infrared spectroscopy has been widely adapted by scientists. It is a method
that utilizes the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Different chemicals are analyzed using infrared
with the concept that molecules absorb specific frequencies that are distinguishable with their structure. The
absorptions are frequency of the absorbed radiation matches the frequency of the bond or group that vibrates.
The resulting IR spectrum can be represented by graphs of infrared light absorbance (or transmittance) on the
vertical axis vs. frequency or wavelength on the horizontal axis.