Final answer:
The electric force between objects is determined by the types and amounts of charges they possess. Objects with like charges repel each other, while objects with opposite charges attract each other, following Coulomb's Law.
Step-by-step explanation:
The charges on objects determine the electric force between them in a predictable way. If two objects have the same type of charge, either positive or negative, they will repel each other. Conversely, if they have opposite charges, one positive and one negative, they will attract each other. This behavior is due to the electric fields that charged objects create around themselves.
According to Coulomb's Law, the magnitude of the electric force is directly proportional to the product of the charges on the two objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Moreover, this law indicates that the force acts along the line joining the two charges. For instance, two positively charged objects will experience a force pushing them apart because they repel each other. On the other hand, a positively charged object and a negatively charged object will pull toward each other due to attraction.
Experiments and observations confirm that charges can either be positive or negative, and it is the interaction of these charges that leads to electric forces. Materials can be charged by friction, resulting in one acquiring a positive charge and the other a negative charge. These charged materials then follow the aforementioned rules of electric force interaction.