Coulomb's Force Law - Implications

Forces Between Charges











































The force between two charges is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

The same distance dependence as gravity.

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The force between two charges is proportional to the product of the charges.

The unit of charge is the Coulomb.

Multiplying opposite charges produces a minus sign --- attraction instead of repulsion.

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Coulomb's law has the same form as Newton's Universal Law of Gravity
One difference: k is twenty factors of ten larger than the gravitational constant G.

Another difference, electric charges can be negative, masses cannot.

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Electrical forces are strong and opposite charges attract, so unbalanced charges tend to neutralize themselves.

Gravity works the opposite way: negative mass does not exist, so no balance is possible and positive masses attract and build up more mass.

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