PHYS 5371Pith Ball Lab Answer Key VocabularyGizmoz; Student Exploration: Pith Ball Lab 2021/2022

Pith Ball Lab Answer Key Vocabulary: Coulomb’s law, electrostatic force, gravitational force, induced charge, pith ball, Pythagorean Theorem, tension, vector Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.) [Note: The purpose of these questions is to activate prior knowledge and get students thinking. Students are not expected to know the answers to the Prior Knowledge Questions.] 1. A girl rubs a balloon on her head and then holds it a short distance away. Why does her hair stick to the balloon? Sample answer: Electrons move from the hair to the balloon, giving the balloon a negative charge and the hair a positive charge. The positive hair is attracted to the negative balloon. 2. Why do you think the individual strands of hair are spread apart? The positive strands of hair are repelled from each other. Gizmo Warm-up The girl’s hair was attracted to the balloon by the electrostatic force, a force between all charged objects. Most objects acquire a charge (q) by gaining or losing electrons. Objects that gain electrons become negatively charged, while objects that lose