Question

Why is the following situation impossible? Two identical dust particles of mass 1.00 µg are floating in empty space, far from any external sources of large gravitational or electric fields, and at rest with respect to each other. Both particles carry electric charges that are identical in magnitude and sign. The gravitational and electric forces between the particles happen to have the same magnitude, so each particle experiences zero net force and the distance between the particles remains constant.

Answer 1

This is a conceptual problem so I will try my best to explain the impossible scenario. First of all the two dust particles ara virtually exempt from any external forces and at rest with respect to each other. This could theoretically happen even if it's difficult for that to happen. The problem is that each of the particles have an electric charge which are equal in magnitude and sign. Thus each particle should feel the presence of the other via a force. The forces felt by the particles are equal and opposite facing away from each other so both charges have a net acceleration according to Newton's second law because of the presence of a force in each particle:

`a=(F)/(m)`

Having seen Newton's second law it should be clear that the particles are actually moving away from each other and will not remain at rest with respect to each other. This is in contradiction with the last statement in the problem.