Coulomb's Law is a mathematical representation of the electric force between two objects. When solving for electric force, a student gets a negative answer. What does this indicate about the two objects?
a
They are oppositely charged and attracted to one another
b
They have like charges and attracted to one another
c
They are oppositely charged and are repulsed by one another
d
They have like charges and are repulsed by one another
The correct answer is (d) They have like charges and are repulsed by one another.
When solving for electric force using Coulomb's Law, a negative answer indicates that the force is attractive, while a positive answer indicates that the force is repulsive. However, in this case, the question mentions that the answer is negative. Therefore, we know that the force is attractive.
The only two options that involve attraction between the objects are option (a) and option (c), which state that the objects are oppositely charged. However, since the answer is negative, we can eliminate option (a) and conclude that the objects have like charges, as stated in option (d).