(a) State Coulomb’s law in vector form for the force between two stationary point…
PHYSICS · Subjective · A Level · Physics · Fields and their consequences · Fields and their consequences
Problem
(a) State Coulomb’s law in vector form for the force between two stationary point charges in vacuum.
(b) The principle of superposition is applied when more than two charges are present. Explain, in words only, how this principle is used to obtain the net electrostatic force on a chosen charge lying in an arbitrary plane where two other point charges are fixed.
(c) When the positions of the charges are expressed as Cartesian coordinates, the individual forces are often resolved into rectangular components before being added. Describe, step by step, how you would carry out this resolution and subsequent addition if the coordinates of the acting charge and the test charge are known.
(d) Why is it necessary to specify a sign convention while expressing the final direction of the net force obtained from component addition?