Question

Suppose that Ben’s foot has a rectangular area of 10cm x 30cm, and that the skin is covered by a uniform layer of carbon atoms. (a) If each carbon atom occupies a square-shaped area of 170pm x 170pm (“pm” is picometer), estimate how much force each carbon atom acts on the ground when Yuchong is standing with BOTH feet flat on the ground. (Recall that Ben’s mass is 64kg.)

(b) If we assume this force by each carbon atom is completely supplied by the electric repelling interaction between one electron in the carbon atom and another electron in another atom on the ground, how large the gap between these two atoms would be? Express your final answer in micrometers.

Answer 1

Here we apply concept of force and pressure as well as Coulomb's law of electrostatics.