What is the force between two small charged spheres having charges of #2 times 10^-7# C and #3 times 10^-7# C placed 30 cm apart in air?
1 Answer
Explanation:
We're asked to find the magnitude of the electric force between two point charges.
To do this, we can use the equation
#F_"e" = k(|q_1q_2|)/(r^2)#
where
-
#F_"e"# is the magnitude of the electric force (in newtons) -
#k# is Coulomb's constant, equal to#8.988xx10^9("N"·"m"^2)/("C"^2)# -
#q_1# and#q_2# are the point charges (in coulombs), in no particular order -
#r# is the distance between the charges (in meters)
We have:
-
#k = 8.988xx10^9("N"·"m"^2)/("C"^2)# -
#q_1 = 2xx10^-7# #"C"# -
#q_2 = 3xx10^-7# #"C"# -
#r = 30# #"cm"# #= ul(0.30color(white)(l)"m"#
Plugging in known values:
#F_"e" = (8.988xx10^9("N"·cancel("m"^2))/(cancel("C"^2)))(|(2xx10^-7cancel("C"))(3xx10^-7cancel("C"))|)/((0.30cancel("m"))^2)#