If the distance between two charges is doubled, how does the force between them change?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
If the distance between two charges is doubled, how does the force between them change?
It doubles
It halves
It quadruples
It reduces to one-fourth
According to Coulomb's law, force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. If the distance is doubled, the force reduces to one-fourth.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: If the distance between two charges is doubled, how does the force between them change?
Solution: According to Coulomb's law, force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. If the distance is doubled, the force reduces to one-fourth.
Steps: 7
Step 1: Understand that there are two charges that are attracting or repelling each other.
Step 2: Know that the force between these charges is described by Coulomb's law.
Step 3: Remember that Coulomb's law states that the force (F) is inversely proportional to the square of the distance (d) between the charges.
Step 4: This means that if you increase the distance, the force decreases.
Step 5: If the distance is doubled (2d), you need to calculate the new force using the formula: F = k * (q1 * q2) / (2d)^2.
Step 6: Simplifying this, you find that (2d)^2 = 4d^2, so the new force is F = k * (q1 * q2) / (4d^2).
Step 7: This shows that the new force is one-fourth of the original force.
