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Li David

During the 1740s, physicists were interested in laws of electrostatic forces. In the 1780s, Coulomb designed a torsion balance experiment to test if the force between charges followed an inverse square law. His experimental data demonstrated that the torque and separation distance between charges agreed with the inverse square law.

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17 views5 pages

Li David

During the 1740s, physicists were interested in laws of electrostatic forces. In the 1780s, Coulomb designed a torsion balance experiment to test if the force between charges followed an inverse square law. His experimental data demonstrated that the torque and separation distance between charges agreed with the inverse square law.

Uploaded by

Devkriti Sharma
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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David Li COSMOS

UC Davis
Cluster 2, 2012

Coulomb’s Law and his Torsion Balance Experiment

During the 1740s, physicists and electricians were especially interested in the

laws of electrostatic attraction and repulsion. Many of these scientists were following

Newton’s law of gravitation and were looking for an inverse square law that explained he

force between two charged particles2. Around this time, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

started school in Paris as an unofficial student, where he learned about Newtonian

mechanics and astronomy. A few decades later, he became interested in electrostatics and

started to design his own torsion balance experiment to try and unravel the laws of

electrostatic forces.1 Coulomb, like many other physicists, assumed that Newton’s law of

gravitation and the inverse square law held true for the force between charges, so he tried

finding a way to prove this. After studying his torsion balance, Coulomb realized that if

he kept the length and diameter of the wires constant, then the torque would only be

affected by the angle of torsion.3 Using this knowledge, and the fact that the torque was

directly proportional to the angle of torsion, Coulomb devised an experiment where he

used a wire under torsion to counteract and measure the force between two charged pith

balls.1 Coulomb performed three trials where he twisted the micrometer and measured the

angle of torsion. From his experimental data, he demonstrated that the torque and

separation distance between the charges for each trial agreed with the inverse square

law2. Coulomb presented three memoirs to the French Royal Academy of Sciences in

1785, where he explained his torsion balance and this particular experiment1.
Works Cited

1. Falconer, Isobel. Charles Augustin Coulomb and the Fundamental Law of


Electrostatics. (Institute of Physics Publishing). [Link]
(Accessed 26 July, 2012).

2. Martinez, Alberto A. Replication of Coulomb’s Torsion Balance Experiment,


2006. (University of Texas: UTexas Webspace). [Link]
(Accessed 26 July, 2012).

3. Shech, Elay. Coulomb's Electric Torsion Balance Experiments of 1785. (Exphps).


[Link] (Accessed 26 July, 2012)

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