PHY 03 Lesson 1.2: Coulomb's Law (Electrostatic Force)

ELECTROSTATIC FORCE

deals with attraction and repulsion between electric charges.

is a vector quantity because it has both magnitude and direction.

Force

is defined as a PUSH or PULL on an object.

act of repelling

implies pushing

act of attracting

suggests pulling

Electric charges

exert a force on each other as they interact.

Newton (N)

unit of electrostatic force.

F

is the electrostatic force (attractive force or repulsive force)

q1 and q2

are the magnitude of the charges

r

the distance between the charges

k

Coulomb's constant

𝑘 = 8.99 𝑥 10^9 𝑁. 𝑚2/𝐶 2

Coulomb's Law

COULOMB'S LAW

SUPERPOSITION PRINCIPLE

the placement of one thing above or on top of another.

Resultant force

is the sum of all the forces acting on a body. This means that if you have two or more forces applied on a body, the body will experience the net effect of all the forces applied.

Addition of forces applied on a body is essentially an application of the superposition principle