Electrostatic Force Essay

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1.5 Electrostatic Forces We just studied that like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. These attractive and repulsive forces are called electrostatic forces. Consider a system of two charges q1 and q2 Where q1 = + 5 C and q2 = + 50 C As both the charges are positive, they will repel each other with forces F1 and F2 as shown in the figure below. Can you tell which force is greater, F1 or F2? Magnitude of charge q2 is greater than magnitude of charge q1. But this does not matter here. F1 and F2 are action-reaction pair, so force applied by charge q1 on q2 is equal and opposite to the force applied by q2 on q1.  Similarly, if we have two opposite charges say q1 = 5 C and q2 = – 50 C. They will experience equal and opposite attractive forces. …show more content…

According to Coulomb’s law, net force acting on one charge due to another charge can be given as–

Where, k is some constant.
• Formulae says that net force experienced by any charge is directly proportional to product of charges. F  q1 q2 If we increase magnitude of charges then force will also increase.
• It also says, net force experienced by any charge is inversely proportional to square of distance between them. As r increases, F will decrease. This looks reasonable. 1.6.1 Features of Coulomb's Law
1. Coulomb’s Law is applicable only for point charges. We cannot use this law to calculate electrostatic force between any two big objects. If an arbitrary shaped body A has charge q1 and another arbitrary shaped body B has charge q2 then forces between these two bodies cannot be given by Coulomb’s law.

2. The proportionality constant k has value: k = 9 × 109 N m2/C2. k can be written as Where, 0 is another constant called permittivity of free space.
3. If we place charges in any medium such as glass or water then value of k can be written

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