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Honey bees can acquire a small net charge on the order of 1 pC as they fly through the air and interact with plants. Estimate the magnetic force on a honey bee due to Earth's magnetic field as the bee flies near the ground from east to west. Average speed of a bee is 15 miles/hour.

HINT: Model the honey bee as a moving, charged point particle. The direction the bee flies is significant.

FEEDBACK: Model the charged honey bee as a point particle.

Answer :

skyluke89

Answer:

[tex]3.35\cdot 10^{-16}N[/tex]

Explanation:

The force exerted on a charged particle due to a magnetic field is given by:

[tex]F=qvB sin \theta[/tex]

where

q is the charge of the particle

v is the velocity of the particle

B is the magnetic field strength

[tex]\theta[/tex] is the angle between the directions of B and v

In this problem we have:

[tex]q=1 pC=1\cdot 10^{-12} C[/tex] is the charge of one honey bee

[tex]v=15 mi/h = 6.7 m/s[/tex] is the velocity of the bee

[tex]B=5.0\cdot 10^{-5} T[/tex] is the average strength of the Earth's magnetic field

[tex]\theta=90^{\circ}[/tex], because the bee flies east to west while the Earth's magnetic field is south to north

Substituting into the equation, we find:

[tex]F=(1\cdot 10^{-12}C)(6.7 m/s)(5.0\cdot 10^{-5} T)(sin 90^{\circ})=3.35\cdot 10^{-16}N[/tex]

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