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Coulomb's Law:
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Coulomb's Law describes the electrostatic interaction between electrically charged particles. It states that the magnitude of the electrostatic force between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
The calculator uses Coulomb's Law equation:
Where:
Explanation: The force is attractive if charges have opposite signs and repulsive if charges have the same sign. The calculator returns the magnitude of the force.
Details: Calculating electric force is fundamental in electromagnetism, helping understand interactions between charged particles, design electrical systems, and analyze atomic and molecular structures.
Tips: Enter both charges in coulombs (C) and distance in meters (m). Distance must be greater than zero. The result shows the magnitude of the electric force in newtons (N).
Q1: What is Coulomb's constant?
A: Coulomb's constant (k) is approximately 8.99×10⁹ N·m²/C² and represents the proportionality factor in Coulomb's Law.
Q2: How does distance affect electric force?
A: Electric force decreases with the square of the distance between charges. Doubling the distance reduces the force to one-quarter.
Q3: What is the direction of electric force?
A: Like charges repel, opposite charges attract. The force acts along the line joining the two charges.
Q4: Can this calculator handle negative charges?
A: Yes, but it returns the magnitude of the force. The direction (attractive/repulsive) depends on the sign of the charges.
Q5: What are typical charge values?
A: Elementary charge is 1.6×10⁻¹⁹ C. Macroscopic charges are typically in microcoulombs (μC) to millicoulombs (mC).