Stability of a crystal is reflected in the magnitude of its melting points'. Comment. Collect melting points of solid water, ethyl alcohol, diethyl ether and methane from a data book. What can you say about the intermolecular forces between these molecules?

A magnetic field that varies in magnitude from point to point but has a constant direction (east to west) is set up in a chamber. A charged particle enters the chamber and travels undeflected along a straight path with constant speed. What can you say about the initial velocity of the particle?

Answer carefully: (a) Two large conducting spheres carrying charges Q_(1) and Q_(2) are brought close to each other. Is the magnitude of electrostatic force between them exactly given by Q_(1),Q_(2)//4pi epsilon_(0)r^(2) , where r is the distance between their centres? (b) If Coulomb’s law involved 1//r^(3) dependence (instead of would Gauss’s law be still true ? (c) A small test charge is released at rest at a point in an electrostatic field configuration. Will it travel along the field line passing through that point? (d) What is the work done by the field of a nucleus in a complete circular orbit of the electron? What if the orbit is elliptical? (e) We know that electric field is discontinuous across the surface of a charged conductor. Is electric potential also discontinuous there? (f) What meaning would you give to the capacitance of a single conductor? (g) Guess a possible reason why water has a much greater dielectric constant (= 80) than say, mica (= 6).