Calculating Forces with Coulomb's Law: Explanation and Extra Credit Question"

[roske]

Using Coulomb's Law, find the force between two objects that have charges of 5 Coulombs and 7 Coulombs, respectively. They are separated by a distance of 5 meters. For the same objects, one of which has a mass of 5kg and the other has a mass of 7kg, what is the force of gravity between them if they are also 5 meters apart? If the charges are both positive, what is the net force between them and in what direction will they initially be accelerated: toward each other or away?

Could somone help me with this question with explanations?

Would really appreciate it!


Extra Credit Question: What is the electrical potential field that an object with a charge of 25 Coulombs experiences if it encounters force of 9 Newtons?

 

[SammyS]

Using Coulomb's Law, find the force between two objects that have charges of 5 Coulombs and 7 Coulombs, respectively. They are separated by a distance of 5 meters. For the same objects, one of which has a mass of 5kg and the other has a mass of 7kg, what is the force of gravity between them if they are also 5 meters apart? If the charges are both positive, what is the net force between them and in what direction will they initially be accelerated: toward each other or away?

Could somone help me with this question with explanations?

Would really appreciate it!

Extra Credit Question: What is the electrical potential field that an object with a charge of 25 Coulombs experiences if it encounters force of 9 Newtons?

Before we can help, you need to share what your thoughts are regarding this problem. -- It's the rules here in Homework help.

 

[roske]

F= k(5C*7C)/5meters

Obviously I have to use Coulomb's law. I am not sure how to integrate the masses of each object into the equation. The answer will be in Newtons. Since they are both positive charges they will be accelerating away from each other.

 

[SammyS]

F= k(5C*7C)/5meters

Obviously I have to use Coulomb's law. I am not sure how to integrate the masses of each object into the equation. The answer will be in Newtons. Since they are both positive charges they will be accelerating away from each other.

The separation distance is squared in Coulomb's Law.

Do you know Newton's law of universal gravitation ? It looks much like Coulomb's Law, with the masses replacing the charges. The constants are very different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_universal_gravitation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law

 

[Nickie]

I am happy to help you with this question and provide a thorough explanation. Coulomb's Law is a fundamental law in electromagnetism that helps us calculate the force between two charged objects. It states that the force between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Using this law, we can calculate the force between the two objects with charges of 5 Coulombs and 7 Coulombs, separated by a distance of 5 meters. The equation for Coulomb's Law is F = k * (q1 * q2)/r^2, where k is the Coulomb's constant (9 * 10^9 Nm^2/C^2), q1 and q2 are the charges of the objects, and r is the distance between them.

Plugging in the values, we get F = (9 * 10^9 Nm^2/C^2) * (5 C * 7 C)/(5 m)^2 = 63 * 10^9 N = 63 GigaNewtons. This is the force of repulsion between the two objects, since they both have positive charges. The direction of the force will be away from each other, as like charges repel each other.

Now, let's calculate the force of gravity between the same objects with masses of 5kg and 7kg, separated by 5 meters. The equation for gravitational force is F = (G * m1 * m2)/r^2, where G is the gravitational constant (6.67 * 10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2), m1 and m2 are the masses of the objects, and r is the distance between them.

Plugging in the values, we get F = (6.67 * 10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2) * (5 kg * 7 kg)/(5 m)^2 = 2.34 * 10^-10 N = 0.234 picoNewtons. This is a very small force compared to the electrostatic force, which shows that the force of gravity is much weaker than the force of electrostatic repulsion.

For the extra credit question, we need to use the equation for electrical potential energy, which is U = k * (q1 * q2)/r. We know that the force experienced by the object is 9