If the distance between two charges is doubled, how does the electrostatic force between them change?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
If the distance between two charges is doubled, how does the electrostatic force between them change?
It doubles
It halves
It quadruples
It reduces to one-fourth
According to Coulomb's law, F ∝ 1/r^2. If r is doubled, F becomes F/4.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
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Q
Q: If the distance between two charges is doubled, how does the electrostatic force between them change?
Solution: According to Coulomb's law, F ∝ 1/r^2. If r is doubled, F becomes F/4.
Steps: 7
Step 1: Understand that electrostatic force between two charges is described by Coulomb's law.
Step 2: Know that Coulomb's law states that the force (F) is inversely proportional to the square of the distance (r) between the charges. This means F ∝ 1/r^2.
Step 3: If the distance (r) is doubled, we can express this as r becomes 2r.
Step 4: Substitute 2r into the formula: F ∝ 1/(2r)^2.
Step 5: Calculate (2r)^2, which equals 4r^2.
Step 6: Now, the formula becomes F ∝ 1/(4r^2).
Step 7: This means the new force (F') is F' = F/4, indicating that the force is reduced to a quarter of its original value.
