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Magnetism and electric fields, Summaries of Physics

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and TechnologyPhysics

Electric fields...coulombs' law

Typology: Summaries

2025/2026

Uploaded on 02/08/2026

kwasi-adomako
kwasi-adomako 🇬🇭

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bg1
Force on point charge due to two
or more point charges
•The example of the hydrogen atom
shows the electrostatic force on
point charge
q
1 due to point charge
q
2
•Suppose that another point charge
q
3 is present; what would be the
net force on
q
1 due to both
q
2 and
q
3?
•It is convenient to deal with such a
problem in parts. First, find the
magnitude and direction of the
force exerted on
q
1 by
q
2 (ignoring
q
3).
pf3
pf4
pf5
pf8
pf9
pfa

Partial preview of the text

Download Magnetism and electric fields and more Summaries Physics in PDF only on Docsity!

Force on point charge due to two

or more point charges

The example of the hydrogen atom shows the electrostatic force on

point charge q

1 due to point charge

q

2

  • (^) Suppose that another point charge

q

3 is present; what would be the

net force on q

1

due to both q

2 and

q

3

  • (^) It is convenient to deal with such a problem in parts. First, find the

Then, determine the force

exerted on q

1

by q

3

(ignoring q

2

  • (^) The net force on q 1

is the vector

sum of these two forces

Problem: The above figure shows three point charges along the x-axis. Determine the magnitude and direction of the net electrostatic force on q 1 Reasoning: Part (b) of the figure shows a free-body diagram of the forces that act on q 1

. Since q 1 and q 2 have opposite signs, they attract one another. Thus, the force exerted on q 1 by q 2 is F 21 , and it points to the left. Similarly, the force exerted on q 1 by q 3 is F 31 and it is an attractive force. It points to the right of the figure in (b). The magnitudes of these forces can be obtained from Coulomb’s law. The net force is the vector sum of F 21 and F 31 .

Solution: The magnitudes of the forces are: Find the net force exerted by q 1 and q 3 on q 2, and the net force exerted by q 1 and q 2 on q 3

Problem: Consider three point charges at the corners of a triangle as shown in figure above where q 1 = 6.00 μC, q 2 = - 2.00 μC and q 3 = 5.00 μC. (a)Find the components of the force F 23 exerted by q 2 on q 3 (b) Find the components of the force F 13 exerted by q 1 on q 3 (c) Find the resultant force on q 3 , in terms of components and also in terms of magnitude and direction

Solution:

(a) Find the components of the force exerted by q 2 on q 3

  • (^) First, find the magnitude of F 23 with Coulomb’s law: F 23 = 5.62 x - N; the components of F 23 are F 23x and F 23y Because F 23 is horizontal and points in the negative x- direction, the negative of the magnitude gives the x- component, and the y-component is zero. Therefore, F 23x = -5.62 x - N F 23y = 0

(c) Find the components of the resultant vector Sum the x-components to find the resultant F x : F x = -5.62 x

  • N +8.63 x - N F x = 3.01 x

N Sum the y-components to find the resultant F y : F y = 0 + 6.50 x

N = 6.50 x

N Find the magnitude of the resultant force on the charge q 3 using Pythagoras theorem:

θ is the angle that the resultant makes with respect to the positive x-axis.