Charge and Coulomb’s Law

Look at the following illustration that quickly reviews the concept of charge and talks about a more quantitative approach to charge: Coulomb’s Law.

Click the image below to view the animation.

Coulomb’s Law

Coulomb's Law states that where F is the force of attraction or repulsion, Q is the charge of the particle, and r is the distance between the particles. Coulomb’s Law is one of the most important concepts of this unit. It looks a lot like Newton’s universal law of gravitation, but in this case, the size of the charge is involved rather than the mass of the particles.

So, what does mass have to do with it? Look at the following illustration to learn about the relationship between charge and mass.

Click the image below to view the animation.