Colomb's Law Word Problem

[waleed.ahmed]

Homework Statement

Examine the charge distribution shown.

a) Find the net force on charge 1
b) What is the net electric field acting on charge 1?

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

Homework Statement

Homework Equations

F = (k)(Q1)(Q2)
____________
d^2

The Attempt at a Solution

 

[tms]

You have the equation for electrostatic force. Apply it to the given setup.

 

[waleed.ahmed]

F = (2)(+2 x 10^-5)(-3 x 10^-5)
Is that right?

 

[tms]

F = (2)(+2 x 10^-5)(-3 x 10^-5)
Is that right?

Some things are missing from that equation. Don't forget that force is a vector.

 

[Nickie]

a) To find the net force on charge 1, we need to calculate the electric force between charge 1 and each of the other charges. We can use Coulomb's law, which states that the force between two charges is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. In this case, we have three charges: Q2, Q3, and Q4.

Using Coulomb's law, we can calculate the force between charge 1 and Q2, Q3, and Q4 separately. Then, we can find the vector sum of these forces to determine the net force on charge 1. The formula for Coulomb's law is F = (k)(Q1)(Q2)/d^2, where k is the Coulomb's constant, Q1 and Q2 are the charges, and d is the distance between them.

b) The net electric field acting on charge 1 can be found by dividing the net force by the charge of the particle. This is because the electric field is a measure of the force per unit charge. So, we can use the formula E = F/Q1 to calculate the net electric field on charge 1. This will give us the magnitude and direction of the electric field at the location of charge 1.