What is the magnitude of each charge in Coulombs according to Coulomb's Law?

[Defcon55]

I have a quick question about using Coulomb's Law, and I was hoping someone would be able to help me.
There are two identical charges which are one meter apart that are repelling each other with a force of 1 N each. What is the magnitude (Coulombs) of each charge?

I tried using Coulomb's law for each of the two charges, and just setting up an arbitrary point where Q1 was located at (0,0) and Q2 is located at (1,0), but I believe this is the wrong way to solve the problem, as I simplified the answer to 1=1.
Is there something that I am missing here? I am using F = k(q1q2)/r^2

Thank you.

 

[berkeman]

I have a quick question about using Coulomb's Law, and I was hoping someone would be able to help me.
There are two identical charges which are one meter apart that are repelling each other with a force of 1 N each. What is the magnitude (Coulombs) of each charge?

I tried using Coulomb's law for each of the two charges, and just setting up an arbitrary point where Q1 was located at (0,0) and Q2 is located at (1,0), but I believe this is the wrong way to solve the problem, as I simplified the answer to 1=1.
Is there something that I am missing here? I am using F = k(q1q2)/r^2

Thank you.

You would seem to have everything defined in that equation except the magnitude of the charge. Show us the numbers you plugged into that equation, and solve for q=q1=q2.

 

[tomcue]

Hello, thank you for your question. It seems like you are on the right track with using Coulomb's Law to solve this problem. However, there are a few things that may be causing confusion in your calculation.

Firstly, it is important to note that Coulomb's Law states that the force between two charges is directly proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This means that as the distance between the charges increases, the force decreases, and vice versa. In your scenario, the two charges are repelling each other with a force of 1 N, which means that they must have equal and opposite charges. This is because the force between them is repulsive, indicating that they have the same sign of charge.

Next, in order to determine the magnitude of each charge, we can rearrange the equation to solve for q1 or q2. Let's rearrange the equation to solve for q1:

q1 = (Fr^2)/kq2

Plugging in the given values, we get:

q1 = (1 N)(1 m)^2/(9x10^9 Nm^2/C^2)(q2)

Simplifying, we get:

q1 = q2/9x10^9 C

Since the two charges are identical, q1 must equal q2. Therefore, we can rewrite the equation as:

q1 = q2 = (1 N)(1 m)^2/(9x10^9 Nm^2/C^2)(q1)

Solving for q1, we get:

q1 = q2 = 9x10^-9 C

Therefore, each charge has a magnitude of 9x10^-9 Coulombs.

I hope this helps clarify the problem for you. Keep in mind that Coulomb's Law is a powerful tool for understanding the relationship between charges and forces in electrostatics. Keep practicing and you will become more comfortable using it. Good luck!