Question

Two identical conducting spheres are placed 80.0 cm apart. One is given a charge of 5.8 C and the other is given a charge of 6.4 C. Find the electric force exerted on one sphere by the other.

Answer 1

Answer: $5.214(10)^{11} N$

Explanation:

According to Coulomb's Law:  

"The electrostatic force $F_{E}$ between two point charges $q_{1}$ and $q_{2}$ is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance $d$ that separates them, and has the direction of the line that joins them".

Mathematically this law is written as:

$F_{E}=K\frac{q_{1}.q_{2}}{d^{2}}$  

Where:

$F_{E}$  is the electrostatic force

$K=8.99(10)^{9} Nm^{2}/C^{2}$ is the Coulomb's constant  

$q_{1}=5.8 C$ and $q_{2}=6.4 C$ are the electric charges

$d=80 cm \frac{1 m}{100 cm}=0.8 m$ is the separation distance between the charges

Solving:

$F_{E}=8.99(10)^{9} Nm^{2}/C^{2}\frac{(5.8 C)(6.4 C)}{(0.8 m)^{2}}$  

$F_{E}=5.214(10)^{11} N$