TO VERIFY THE COULOMB’S LAW IN

ELECTROSTATICS USING PHET

SIMULATION WORK

A Project report
Submitted to the Department of Physics, St. Xavier’s College,
Maitighar in the partial fulfillment for the requirement of NEB +2 science
in physics

By

Mohit Bhattarai
Class: 11
Roll No: 023NEB337
Section: ‘C’
Date : 17th January, 2024
 RECOMMENDATION

It is to certify that Mr. Mohit Bhattarai has successfully carried out the project entitled “TO
VERIFY COULOMB’S LAW IN ELECTROSTATICS USING PHET SIMULATION
WORK” under my guidance and supervision.
I recommend this project for the +2 degree of NEB.

………………………….
Advisor
Mr. Ajay Kumar Karn
Department of physics
St. Xavier’s College
Maitighar, Kathmandu, Nepal

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance and assistance from a number of
people and I am extremely fortunate to receive such proper supervision for the completion of
the project. Whatever I have done in this project is only due to such instructions and
assistance, and I would not forget to thank them. I am indebted to the Department of Physics,
St. Xavier’s College, Maitighar, for providing me with such an expressive platform for
project. I am heartily grateful to the project supervisor and our gratified lecturer of Physics,
Ajay Kumar Karn Sir.

I am thankful and fortunate enough to get constant encouragement, support, and guidance
from them, who have helped me in finalizing my project work. I also thank all the
organizations that provide the necessary information for this report.

Lastly, I thank all my friends and my brothers for their tremendous contributions and support
both morally and financially towards the completion of this project.

Mohit Bhattarai
Level: +2
Roll: 023NEB337

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
RECOMMENDATION i
ACKNOWLEGEMENT ii
INTRODUCTION Page no. 1
OBJECTIVES Page no. 2
METHODOLOGY Page no. 3
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Page no. 4
CONCLUSION Page no. 6
FUTURE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT Page no. 7
REFERENCES Page no. 8

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 INTRODUCTION
When you combed your hairs with comb, and bring the comb closer to the paper, the papers
are attracted to the comb. If you rub a balloon for a few seconds, it will stick to the wall.
Many of these phenomena known for centuries. This suggests that there were two types of an
electric property This property eventually called electric change.
French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb studied this property and in 1785, he
states that," the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged bodies is directly
proportional to the product of the magnitude of their charges and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance from their centres."
According the Coulomb's law,
F ∝ q1q2 ……………… (i)
F ∝ 1/r2…………...... (ii)
Combining equation (i) and (ii), we get
F ∝ (q1q2)/r2
F=k(q1q2)/r2
Where k is electrostatic force constant, whose value depends upon the system of units used
and the medium in which charges are placed.

In Sl units k is given by k=1/4πε0, where ε0(epsilon zero) called permittivity of free space.
The experimentally measured value of k is 9 x 10Nm²/C².
Therefore, ε0 = 1/4πk = 8.85×10-12 C 2 N-1m-2. Thus coulombs law in Sl units is written as,
F=(1/4πε0) ×(q1q2)/r2
If the charges are placed in any other medium, the force is given by F=(1/4πε) ×(q1q2)/r2
where ε is the permittivity of the medium.

In CGS units for vacuum or air k=1

Thus in CGS units, coulomb's law is written as,
F=(q1q2)/r2

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 OBJECTIVES
 To know about the basic concepts of Coulomb’s Law.
 To obtain the quantitative measure of electrostatic interaction.
 To know about the graphic relation between point charges, distance between the
charges and force present between the charges.
 To know the relationship between any two point charges and distance from their
centers.

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 METHODOLOGY
While preparing this paper several books and websites were consulted. This paper mainly
focuses on the relationship between the charges, distance between the charges and forces.
This report is totally based on the facts, figures, several experimental verifications, and
discussions with physics lecturers. This report includes the experimental verifications of
coulomb’s law which also considers the quality and quantity measures of coulomb’s law.
Number of books and websites were observed to achieve our objective. Several tests were
observed by utilizing to different point charges having different magnitude kept at a distance.
Different data were collected form the experiment and graphed to show their relation. By
performing the experiment, it is observed that force between two charges changes with the
change in magnitude of charge and distance between them, but it is observed that changes
seen in the interaction between the charges depends on the product of the magnitude of
charges and distance between them. PhET simulator was used to obtain the result. Also,
Microsoft Word was used to make documentation and Google Spreadsheet was used to
analyze the data while preparing the graph.
PhET simulation used as follows:

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 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Relation between product of magnitude of charges and electrostatic force of interaction.

S.N. First charge(q1) Second Product of Electrostati Distance
in C charge(q2) in magnitude of c force between
C charges(C) them(cm)
1. 3 1 3 30 3
2. 3 2 6 60 3
3. 4 3 12 120 3
4. 5 4 20 200 3
5. 6 4 24 240 3
6. 7 6 42 420 3
7. 7 7 49 490 3
8. 8 7 56 560 3
9. 8 9 72 720 3
10. 9 10 90 900 3

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S.N. First Second Product of Distance 1/r2 Electrostatic
charge (q1) charge(q2) magnitude between force
of charges the charges
(C) (r)
1 1 2 2 2 0.25 45
2 1 2 2 3 0.111 20
3 1 2 2 4 0.0625 10
4 1 2 2 5 0.04 8
5 1 2 2 6 0.0278 5
6 1 2 2 7 0.0204 4
7 1 2 2 8 0.015625 3
8 1 2 2 9 0.012346 2
9 1 2 2 10 0.01 1.8
10 1 2 2 11 0.00826 1.487

CONCLUSION
Thus, this report provides a proper proof of coulomb’s law by explaining about the relation
between any two point charges and distance between them. This report mainly focuses on the
change in the magnitude of charges and distance between them. The experiment is performed
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by placing different charges at different distance that shows different results and they are
plotted in a graph which provides a proper result.
Hence, from the table and graph, it can be concluded that “the force of interaction
(coulomb force) between any two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the
magnitude of their charges and inversely to the square of the distance from their centers.”
This statement is verified using PhET simulator. As a result, this report is mainly based on its
own data but also considers the one given by the experts in the past.

FUTURE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

 It helps to understand about a fundamental relation between charged particles and
explains about the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles.
 Mainly, it is important for creating equipment with specific electrical behavior like
nanotechnology.

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  This project helps to design electronic components based on the character of charged
particles.
 This project helps to know or predict about the character of charged particles in space
which further helps to design spacecraft that can resist in space.
 It is very useful in studies related to quality of air and development of techniques such
as electroencephalography (EEG) that can be very useful in medical field.

REFERENCE
Books:
[1] Khem Raj Deuja, Pioneer Physics Grade-11, Kathmandu, Nepal (2076 BS)
[2] Sears & Zemansky’s, University Physics, 15th Edition, United States (2020 AD)

Websites:

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[3] https://byjus.com/maths/direct-and-inverse-proportion/
[4] https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/coulombs-law/latest/coulombs-law_en.html
[5] https://www.toppr.com/guides/physics/electric-charges-and-fields/coulombs-law/

Reports:
[6] Galib F. Rahman, Coulomb’s Law (2022)