Question

What does \[{q_1}\] and \({q_2}\] stand for in Coulomb’s law?

Answer 1

Hint: The force of attraction or of repulsion between any two charged bodies can be known or calculated using Coulomb’s law. The equation for Coulomb’s law was given by French physicist Charles Augustin De Coulomb in 1785.

Complete step by step solution:
According to Coulomb’s law, the force between any two charged particles will be directly proportional to the product of the charges on them and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Mathematically, the formula for Coulomb’s law can be written as:
\[F = \dfrac{1}{{4\pi { \in _0}}}.\dfrac{{{q_1}{q_2}}}{{{r^2}}}\]
Where, \[{ \in _0}\] is the absolute permittivity of the free space, \[{q_1},{q_2}\] are the charges on both the charged particles, \[{r^2}\] is the distance with which both the charges are separated and $F$ is the force of attraction or repulsion between the charges.

Therefore in Coulomb’s law ,\[{q_1},{q_2}\] stands for the charge that the charged particles have.

Note:It is important to note that if the two given charges are of the same polarity, they will be repelling each other. On the other hand, if the two given charges have different polarities, they will be attracting each other. The force of attraction or repulsion depends on the line joining the two charges. Also, Coulomb’s law of force can only be applied to find the force of attraction or repulsion between the point charges and not on bigger objects or planets. If the given charges do not have a definite shape, then it will be difficult to find the distance between the charges and hence Coulomb’s law can not be used in that case.