Electron held up against force of gravity

[IbrahimZCL]

Homework Statement

an electron is held up against the force of gravity by the attraction of a fixed proton some distance above it. How far above the electron is the proton?

Homework Equations

F= ((K)(Q1)(Q2))/R^2

Qe = 1.6x10^-19

The Attempt at a Solution

Using the formula for Coulombs Law I used the K constant of 9x10^9 and Qe for Q1 and Q2. This is all divided by R^2 (I'm solving for R). The problem is I don't know if there is a gravitational constant for Force or what I'm missing. What's the next step?

 

[rl.bhat]

Write F = mg where m is the mass of the electron.

 

[nlightner]

Thank you for your question. I would approach this problem by first considering the forces acting on the electron. The two main forces at play here are the electrostatic force between the proton and electron, and the force of gravity due to the Earth's gravitational field.

To determine the distance between the proton and electron, we can set the two forces equal to each other and solve for the distance (R). However, as you mentioned, we need to consider the gravitational force as well. The formula for gravitational force is F = (G)(m1)(m2)/R^2, where G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects, and R is the distance between them.

So, the next step would be to set the electrostatic force (using Coulomb's Law) equal to the gravitational force and solve for R. This will give us the distance between the proton and electron. We can then compare this distance to the known size of an atom (approximately 10^-10 meters) to see if it is a reasonable result.

It is also worth noting that in this scenario, the force of gravity is likely negligible compared to the electrostatic force, since the mass of an electron is much smaller than the mass of a proton. However, it is still important to consider both forces in our calculations. I hope this helps.