Interaction of two charged conducting balls: theory and experiment
V.A. Saranin,
V.V. Mayer
Department of Physics, Korolenko Glazov State Pedagogical Institute, ul. Pervomaiskaya 25, Glazov, 427600, Russian Federation
Three possible settings are considered for the question
of two interacting charged conducting balls: (1) both balls are
kept at constant and equal potentials; (2) one ball is charged and
isolated, the other is kept at a constant potential with the same
sign as the first, and (3) both balls are like charged and isolated.
It is shown that fundamentally different problems generally
arise here: whereas in the first case the balls always repel, in
the second and third cases fairly wide ranges of radius and
charge ratios can always be found in which the balls attract
each other at close distances. These ranges are identified in the
paper. The results are presented of experiments that demonstrate both the repulsion and attraction of like-charged balls.
Theory and experiment show satisfactory agreement, both
qualitatively and quantitatively.
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