Answer:
54.0 units
Step-by-step explanation:
The electrostatic force between two charged particles is given by the equation:
where
k is the Coulomb constant
are the charges of the two particles
r is the separation between the particles
The direction of the force is:
- Repulsive if the two charges have same sign (++ or --)
- Attractive if the two charges have opposite sign (+-)
In this problem, the initial force is
F = 36.0 units
when we have charges
and distance
.
Later:
- Charge of object 1 is halved, so
- Charge of object 2 is tripled, so
So, the new electrostatic force will be:
And using F = 36.0, we find