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Honeybees accumulate charge as they fly, and they transfer charge to the flowers they visit. Honeybees are able to sense electric fields; te
Question
Honeybees accumulate charge as they fly, and they transfer charge to the flowers they visit. Honeybees are able to sense electric fields; tests show that they can detect a change in field as small as 0.77 N/C. Honeybees seem to use this sense to determine the charges on flowers in order to detect whether or not a flower has been recently visited, so they can plan their foraging accordingly. As a check on this idea, let’s do a quick calculation using typical numbers for charges on flowers.
Part A If a bee is at a distance of 20 cm, can it detect the difference between flowers that have a 24 pC charge and a 32 pC charge
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Physics
4 years
2021-07-19T12:32:20+00:00
2021-07-19T12:32:20+00:00 1 Answers
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Answer:
ΔE> E_minimo
We see that the field difference between these two flowers is greater than the minimum field, so the bee knows if it has been recently visited, so the answer is if it can detect the difference
Explanation:
For this exercise let’s use the electric field expression
E = k q / r²
where k is the Coulomb constant that is equal to 9 109 N m² /C², q the charge and r the distance to the point of interest positive test charge, in this case the distance to the bee
let’s calculate the field for each charge
Q = 24 pC = 24 10⁻¹² C
E₁ = 9 10⁹ 24 10⁻¹² / 0.20²
E₁ = 5.4 N / C
Q = 32 pC = 32 10⁻¹² C
E₂ = 9 10⁹ 32 10⁻¹² / 0.2²
E₂ = 7.2 N / C
let’s find the difference between these two fields
ΔE = E₂ -E₁
ΔE = 7.2 – 5.4
ΔE = 1.8 N / C
the minimum detection field is
E_minimum = 0.77 N / C
ΔE> E_minimo
We see that the field difference between these two flowers is greater than the minimum field, so the bee knows if it has been recently visited, so the answer is if it can detect the difference