Question

After brushing, Fluffy's fur has a charge of 8.0 x 10^-9 coulombs and her plastic brush has charge of -1.4× 10^-8 coulombs. If the distance between the fur and brush is roughly 5.0 × 10^-1 meters, what is the approximate magnitude of the force between them?

Answer 1

Given data:

charge 1 (q₁) = 8.0 × 10⁻⁹ coulombs

charge 2 (q₂) = -1.4 × 10⁻⁸ coulombs

distance between fur and brush (r) = 5.0 × 10⁻¹ m

We know that,

The couloumb's law describes the charge between two particles

Mathematically,

F = k.(q₁ . q₂)/r² ----------------------- (i)

Where F = Force between particles

k = constant, 8.99 × 10⁹ Nm²/C² -------------- (ii)

keep the charge, distance values and value of k in equation (i), to determine the magnitude of force

F = 8.99 × 10⁹ ×{ (8.0 × 10⁻⁹) × ( -1.4 × 10⁻⁸)} / (5.0 × 10⁻¹)²

= -4.02 × 10⁻⁶

The force is negative means "the force is attractive"