(Electric charge – conceptual scaling) Two identical metal spheres carry charges that…
PHYSICS · Multi-part · CBSE · Physics · Electric Charges and Fields · Electric Charges and Fields
Problem
(Electric charge – conceptual scaling)
Two identical metal spheres carry charges that may be altered without touching each other. Answer the following questions.
(i) State Coulomb’s law for the force between two stationary point charges, clearly mentioning the physical significance of every symbol used.
(ii) Without doing any numerical calculation, predict and justify how the magnitude of the electrostatic force will change if each of the two charges is multiplied by 3 while their separation is simultaneously multiplied by 1.5.
(iii) Give two qualitative reasons, based on either experimental evidence or dimensional arguments, that support the inverse-square dependence on distance appearing in Coulomb’s law.