JOSE RIZAL UNIVERSITY

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

NAT S112 PHYSICS 2
2nd SEMESTER, SY 2021-2022

Group Members: Section: E11B

1. Alvarez, Marguerite Luanne R. 4. Ignacio, John Mark R.
2. Buhain, Charlene Mae B. 5. Opiala, Rance Gerwyn A.
3. Delos Santos, Yco Yozen 6.

Coulomb’s Law

Learning Activity 1

I. Objectives

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

● Relate the electrostatic force magnitude to the charges and the distance between them

● Explain Newton's third law for electrostatic forces

● Use measurements to determine Coulomb’s constant

● Determine what makes a force attractive or repulsive

II. Materials

● Coulomb’s Law Simulation

https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/coulombs-law/latest/coulombs-law_en.html

● Scientific calculator

● Paper

● Ballpen

III. Procedures

Carefully follow the procedures:

1. Click the link given above or copy and paste it to any browser, it will direct you to the website of our virtual lab.

2. It will lead you to the page shown below.

 3. Press the play button and then click on the Macro-Scale simulation option.

4. Move the blue “Charge 1” slider to -10; move the red “Charge 2” slider to +10.

5. “q1” and “q2” represent two charged objects. The white arrows are force vectors that indicate the direction and
magnitude (size) of the force on the charged object.

6. Move q1 and q2 closer together and farther apart:

Experiment 1: Describe what happens to the arrows and people.

7. Move the blue “Charge 1” slider to -10; move the red “Charge 2” slider to -10.

8. Move q1 and q2 closer together and farther apart:

Experiment 2: Describe what happens to the arrows and people.

Question 1: In which experiment were the objects repelling one another, and in which experiment were the objects attracting
to each other?

The objects were attracted to each other during the experiment wherein the charge values were -10 and +10 respectively.
Meanwhile, the objects were repelling one another during the experiment wherein both of the charge values are -10.

Question 2: Compare the forces on the two charged objects.

The magnitudes of the force are: same

The direction of the forces are: opposite

9. Let’s explore what affects the magnitude (size) of the forces. Set the charge values for q1 and q2 as instructed in the
tables below, then set the distance between the charges to either 3 cm or 10cm as instructed in the tables below (It does not matter
where on the ruler q1 and q2 are just make sure they are either 3cm or 10cm apart). Determine the magnitude of the force for both
charges for each cell in the table. Report the forces to two decimal places.
 Experiment 3: +/- charge combination

q1 = -10 μC & q2 = +10 μC q1 = -8 μC & q2 = +8 μC

-1000 N -640 N

- 90 N -57.6 N

Experiment 4: -/- charge combination

q1 = -10 μC & q2 = -10 μC q1 = -8 μC & q2 = -8 μC

640 N
1000 N

90 N 57.6 N

IV. Set - up

Directions: Attach pictures/screenshots of the calculations and demonstration for documentations.

V. Critical Thinking Questions:

1. How does increasing the magnitude of the charge of the particles in Experiment 3 affect the attractive force between them?

The magnitude of the charges have a huge effect on the particles because it determines if it will attract or repel the particles from
each other and we can learn what is the force between them.

2. How does increasing the distance between the particles in Experiment 3 affect the attractive force between them?

Based on what is observed, when the distance was increased, the force between them decreased but the charge between them also
has an affect on the force they have.

3. How does changing the charge of the particles in Experiment 4 affect the repulsive force between them?

As the charge of the particles increase or decrease, the force between them also increases or decreases.

4. How does changing the distance between the particles in Experiment 4 affect the repulsive force between them?

In simple terms, the distance and force have an inverse relationship between them. As shown in Experiment 4, when the
distance is increased, the force is decreased. When the distance is decreased, the force is then increased.

As you move the particles close to each other the force between them increases making them push even harder. Therefore as their
distance gets closer, the force increases.

5. How do the results of experiments 3 and 4 confirm or refute the relationships among force, distance, and charge in Coulomb’s
Law?

We observed in the process of experiment 3 and 4 that, if the magnitude increases the force will also increase and if the
distance decreases the force will increase or in short the force and magnitude is directly proportional while the distance and force
is indirectly proportional.

VI. Conclusion

As we calculate the magnitude of the force, we discovered that whatever the distance or charge is, they will always be the
same. After calculating them using Coulomb's Law and rounding it off, the answer is the same as the given magnitude of force.

We have also discovered through this learning activity that there are two main variables that affect the force of two
particular particles. That being, the distance between the aforementioned particles as well as what kind of charges they have.
 We can therefore conclude that the force on each individual charge was directed along the line which joined them and that
the charges that were unlike attracted whereas those that were alike repelled.
We can therefore conclude that there are two things that can affect the electrostatic force magnitude between two molecules
which are the distance between them and what charges they possess. It can be also observed in the experiments that Newton's
third law for electrostatic forces can be seen because of how they have the equal or same amount of force but they are the
opposite of each other and we determined this by using Coulomb's Law.

Everybody also observed that if both objects has the same charge it repels each other and it attract each other if both the
object don't have the same charge.