Home
Back
Coulomb's Law:
| From: | To: |
Coulomb's Law describes the electrostatic interaction between electrically charged particles. It states that the force between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
The calculator uses Coulomb's Law:
Where:
Explanation: The force is attractive if charges have opposite signs and repulsive if they have the same sign. The calculator returns the magnitude of the force.
Details: Calculating electric forces is fundamental in electromagnetism, helping understand atomic structure, chemical bonding, and designing electrical systems and devices.
Tips: Enter both charges in Coulombs, distance in meters. Distance must be greater than zero. The result shows the magnitude of the force in Newtons.
Q1: What is Coulomb's constant?
A: Coulomb's constant (k) is approximately 8.99 × 10⁹ N·m²/C², representing the electric force constant in a vacuum.
Q2: Does the calculator consider charge signs?
A: The calculator returns the magnitude of the force. For direction, remember: like charges repel, opposite charges attract.
Q3: What are typical charge values?
A: Elementary charge is 1.6 × 10⁻¹⁹ C. Most practical charges range from microcoulombs (10⁻⁶ C) to millicoulombs (10⁻³ C).
Q4: Is this valid for all distance scales?
A: Coulomb's Law applies to point charges at rest. For very small distances (atomic scales) or moving charges, quantum mechanics and relativity become important.
Q5: How does medium affect the force?
A: In different media, the force is reduced by the dielectric constant of the material: \( F = \frac{1}{4\pi\epsilon} \frac{q_1 q_2}{r^2} \), where ε is the permittivity of the medium.