Which law states that the force between two point charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them?

Which law states that the force between two point charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them?

• A. Coulomb's law
• B. Ohm's law
• C. Newton's law
• D. Gauss's law

Answer: (A)

The force between two point charges follows an inverse-square relationship tied to the charges themselves. Specifically, the force is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. In numbers, F = k q1 q2 / r^2, with k being Coulomb’s constant (about 8.99×10^9 N·m^2/C^2) in a vacuum. This means the force grows with larger charges and gets weaker rapidly as the separation increases, dropping off with the square of the distance. The direction is along the line connecting the charges: like charges repel, opposite charges attract. If the medium isn’t vacuum, the constant changes to reflect the medium’s permittivity, but the 1/r^2 dependence and the q1 q2 product stay central. Other laws describe different phenomena: Ohm’s law is about current and resistance in circuits, Gauss’s law relates flux to enclosed charge, and Newton’s law (in its usual form) describes motion under forces rather than the specific force law between charges.

The force between two point charges follows an inverse-square relationship tied to the charges themselves. Specifically, the force is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. In numbers, F = k q1 q2 / r^2, with k being Coulomb’s constant (about 8.99×10^9 N·m^2/C^2) in a vacuum. This means the force grows with larger charges and gets weaker rapidly as the separation increases, dropping off with the square of the distance. The direction is along the line connecting the charges: like charges repel, opposite charges attract. If the medium isn’t vacuum, the constant changes to reflect the medium’s permittivity, but the 1/r^2 dependence and the q1 q2 product stay central. Other laws describe different phenomena: Ohm’s law is about current and resistance in circuits, Gauss’s law relates flux to enclosed charge, and Newton’s law (in its usual form) describes motion under forces rather than the specific force law between charges.