12. 1 Coulomb’s law
If the charges
 The electrostatic force between two point charges is
directly proportional to _______________________
and inversely proportional to __________________
 The force is ____________________ if the charges
are of the same sign but is _______________ if
the charges are of opposite sign.
E1
E2
E3
E4
Exercise 12.1
1. What is the force between two small charged
spheres having charges of 2 × 10-7 C and 3 × 10-7 C
placed 30 cm apart in air?
2. Two point charges are 5.0 m apart.
are 0.020 C and 0.030 C, what is the force between
them and is it attractive or repulsive?
3. The hydrogen atom is made up of a proton and an
electron. The two particles attract each other
because they both have mass and they also have
opposite charges.
The magnitude of the electron/proton charge is
1.60 x 10-19 C.
The distance between them in a hydrogen
atom is around 5.3 x 10-11 m.
For the mass of an electron we’ll use 9.1 x 10 –
31 kg.
For the mass of a proton we’ll use 1.7 x 10 –27
kg.
(a) Find the magnitude of the electrostatic
force and the gravitational force between
the proton and electron.
(b) Calculate the ratio of the electrostatic
force to the gravitational force.
4. Three point charges are arranged as shown in
the figure below. (Take q1 = 5.46 nC, q2 =
4.95 nC, and q3 = -2.97 nC.)
a. Find the magnitude of the electric
force on the particle at the origin.
b. Find the direction of the electric force
on the particle at the origin.
5. Four-point charges qA = 2 μC, qB = –5
μC, qC = 2 μC and qD = –5 μC are located
at the corners of a square ABCD of side 10
cm. What is the force on a charge of 1 μC
placed at the centre of the square?
6. Four-point charges Q, q, Q and q are
placed at the corners of a square of side ‘a’
as shown in the figure. Prove the resultant
electric force on a charge Q is
Answer

E1
E2
E3
Q1

Answer: 9 x103 N
Q2

Q3
Q4

Three point charges are arranged as shown in the figure below. (Take q1 = 5.46 nC, q2 = 4.95
nC, and q3 = -2.97 nC.)
c. Find the magnitude of the electric force on the particle at the origin.
d. Find the direction of the electric force on the particle at the origin.
e. Find the magnitude of the electric force on the particle at the origin.
f. Find the direction of the electric force on the particle at the origin.
Answer
 2)

Q5