Three point charge are located at a line 20cm with charge q1= -3uC, q2= +4uC, q3= -7uC. Determine the magnitude of the force.
Force on what ?
do you mean in a row, each 20 cm from the previous ?
In general F = k Q1 Q2/d^2
toward each other if opposite sign
repel each other if same sign
To determine the magnitude of the force between the three point charges, we need to use Coulomb's Law.
Coulomb's Law states that the magnitude of the force between two point charges is proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Mathematically, it can be expressed as:
F = k * |q1 * q2| / r^2
where:
F is the magnitude of the force
k is the electrostatic constant (k = 8.99 x 10^9 N*m^2/C^2)
q1 and q2 are the charges of the two point charges
r is the distance between the two point charges (in meters)
In this case, we have three point charges: q1 = -3uC, q2 = +4uC, and q3 = -7uC. The distance between the charges is given as 20cm, which is equal to 0.2m.
To find the magnitude of the force between each pair of charges, we can use Coulomb's Law. Let's calculate the forces:
Force between q1 and q2:
F12 = (k * |q1 * q2|) / r^2
= (8.99 x 10^9 N*m^2/C^2) * (|-3uC * 4uC|) / (0.2m)^2
Force between q2 and q3:
F23 = (k * |q2 * q3|) / r^2
= (8.99 x 10^9 N*m^2/C^2) * (|4uC * -7uC|) / (0.2m)^2
Force between q1 and q3:
F13 = (k * |q1 * q3|) / r^2
= (8.99 x 10^9 N*m^2/C^2) * (|-3uC * -7uC|) / (0.2m)^2
Finally, to determine the magnitude of the net force, we can add the magnitudes of the individual forces:
Magnitude of the net force:
|Fnet| = |F12| + |F23| + |F13|
Now you can substitute the values into the equations and calculate the magnitude of the net force.