Halliday, Resnick & Walker — Electromagnetic Waves: Problem 15

15 As a comet swings around the Sun, ice on the comet’s surface vaporizes, releasing trapped dust particles and ions. The ions, because they are electrically charged, are forced by the electrically charged solar wind into a straight ion tail that points radially away from the Sun (Fig. 33-35). The (electrically neutral) dust particles are pushed radially outward from the Sun by the radiation force on them from sunlight. Assume that the dust particles are spherical, have density $3.0 \times 10^3 \text{ kg/m}^3$, and are totally absorbing. (a) What radius must a particle have in order to follow a straight path, like path 2 in the figure? (b) If its radius is larger, does its path curve away from the Sun (like path 1) or toward the Sun (like path 3)?