Halliday, Resnick & Walker — Electric Fields: Problem 5

5 Assume that a honeybee is a sphere of diameter 1.000 cm with a charge of +60.0 pC uniformly spread over its surface. Assume also that a spherical pollen grain of diameter 40.0 μm is electrically held on the surface of the bee because the bee’s charge induces a charge of -1.00 pC on the near side of the grain and a charge of +1.00 pC on the far side. (a) What is the magnitude of the net electrostatic force on the grain due to the bee? Next, assume that the bee brings the grain to a distance of 1.000 mm from the tip of a flower’s stigma and that the tip is a particle of charge -60.0 pC. (b) What is the magnitude of the net electrostatic force on the grain due to the stigma? (c) Does the grain remain on the bee or move to the stigma?