Question

Two uniformly charged pellets a and b are held some distance from each other, and then the charge on a is doubled. What will happen to the force between the pellets?

1) The force between the pellets will double.
2) The force between the pellets will halve.
3) The force between the pellets will remain the same.
4) The force between the pellets will become zero.

Answer 1

Doubling the charge on one pellet while keeping the other's charge the same will double the force between them, in accordance with Coulomb's Law.

Step-by-step explanation:

When the charge on pellet a is doubled while the charge on pellet b remains the same, the force between the two charged pellets will also double, according to Coulomb's Law. This law states that the electrostatic force (F) between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Therefore, if one charge is doubled (2q) and the other charge (q) remains the same with the distance (r) between them constant, the new force (F') will be 2F.