UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

CAWANGAN PERAK KAMPUS TAPAH

PHY 150
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM
LABORATORY REPORT

TITLE : COULOMB’S LAW

EXP. NO. :1

GROUP : A4AS1203A

NO NAME STUDENT ID
1) NUR SYAMIMI AZREEN BT MOHD ALI 2019368145
2) FATIN NADIA BT TALIBUDIN 2019367179
3) PUTERI NURUL ATIQAH BT MAZLAN 2019906069
4) NUR ALLISYA NAJWA BT ABDUL NASIR 2019514251
5) NOR SYAFIQAH BT ABDUL WAHID 2018214892

DATE OF
SUBMISSION : JULY 1, 2020
LECTURER : SIR AZRUL NIZAM B ALIAS

1
1) CONTENTS
SECTIONS PAGE

TOPICS RELATED
OBJECTIVE
INTRODUCTION 3

MATERIAL 4
PROCEDURE

DATA AND RESULTS 5-6

DISCUSSION 7

CONCLUSION
REFERENCES 8

2
2) TOPICS RELATED
 Electrostatics
 Electric Force
 Force Pairs
 Coulomb's Law

3) DESCRIPTION
Visualize the electrostatic force that two charges exert on each other. Observe how
changing the sign and magnitude of the charges and the distance between them affects the
electrostatic force.

4) OBJECTIVES
 To relate the electrostatic force magnitude to the charges and the distance between
them
 To explain Newton's third law for electrostatic forces
 To use measurements to determine Coulomb’s constant
 To determine what makes a force attractive or repulsive

5) INTRODUCTION
The virtual lab about the electrostatic force and electric field was being experimented to
indicate the best result about this topic. Coulomb’s Law state that the electrostatic force
between two stationary point charges is directly proportional to the product of their charges
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. It is given as below:

k ‫ ׀‬Q1 ‫ ׀ ׀‬Q 2 ‫׀‬

F=
r2
Electrostatic force is a vector quantity and its SI unit is Newton(N). If more than one forces
are acting on the charge , the resultant of these forces (or net force) is the vector sum of
these forces. Electric field is the space around an isolated charge where an electric force is
experienced if a positive test charge is placed in the region. The electric field from an
isolated negative charge is radially inwards into the charge whereas the electric force from
an isolated positive charge is radially outwards from the charges. Electric field is represented
by drawing a series of lines, called field lines. The characteristics of electric field lines are
firstly, it starts from the positive charge and ends on the negative charge, then, the direction
of the electric field is always tangential to the electric field line at any point, then, the closer
the electric field lines, the stronger is the field, and the last is the electric field lines never
cross each other. To sum up, the strength of electric field is decrease when the distance
from the charge is increase.

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6) MATERIAL
PC/Laptop/Smartphone/ any gadget that have internet connection and able to handle the
simulation.

7) PROCEDURE
1) The table in the data and result section were studied.
2) The charge values and the distance between them were set up as shown in the tables
below.
3) The value of force of q1 on q2 and value of force of q2 on q1 were recorded in the
tables.
4) The arrow direction (away or toward each other) were determined.
5) The result was observed and recorded in the tables carefully.

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8) DATA AND RESULTS

TABLE 1: Changing Charge 1

Distance Force  Force  Arrow direction
Charge Charge 2 (value to (of 1 on (of 2 on
between 2) (away or toward
1 μC set on slidebar)μC 1)
charges (cm) N N each other)
160 160 Away from each
2 8 3
other
320 320 Away from each
4 8 3
other
480 480 Away from each
6 8 3
other
640 640 Away from each
8 8 3
other
800 800 Away from each
10 8 3
other

TABLE 2: Changing Charge 2

Distance Force  Force  Arrow direction
Charge Charge 2 (value to (of 1 on (of 2 on
between 2) (away or toward
1 μC set on slidebar)μC 1)
charges (cm) N N each other)
60 60 Toward each
-3 2 3
other
120 120 Toward each
-3 4 3
other
180 180 Toward each
-3 6 3
other
240 240 Toward each
-3 8 3
other
300 300 Toward each
-3 10 3
other

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 TABLE 3: Changing the Distance
Distance Force  Force  Arrow direction
Charge Charge 2 (value to between (of 1 on (of 2 on
2) (away or toward
1 μC set on slidebar)μC charges 1)
N N each other)
cm
6 -6 2 810 810 Toward each other
6 -6 4 202.5 202.5 Toward each other
6 -6 6 90 90 Toward each other
6 -6 8 50.6 50.6 Toward each other
6 -6 10 32.4 32.4 Toward each other

Figure 1 LAB VIRTUAL COULOMBS LAW

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9) DISCUSSION
This virtual lab is to explore the concept of Coulomb's law, or Coulomb's inverse-square law,
is an experimental law of physics that quantifies the amount of force between two stationary,
electrically charged particles. The electric force between charged bodies at rest is
conventionally called electrostatic force or Coulomb force. The quantity of electrostatic force
between stationary charges is always described by Coulomb's law. In its scalar form, the law
is:

k ‫ ׀‬Q1 ‫ ׀ ׀‬Q 2 ‫׀‬

F=
r2

where ke is Coulomb's constant (ke ≈ 9×109 N⋅m2⋅C−2), q1 and q2 are the signed
magnitudes of the charges, and the r is the distance between the charges.

The force on charge 1 and charge 2 will always be the same values. However, the change in
values of distance between the charges will have a big effect on the electrostatic force.
Electrical forces are extremely sensitive to distance. The electrical force between two
charged objects is inversely related to the distance between the two objects. Increasing the
distance between objects decreases the force of attraction or repulsion between the objects.
And decreasing the separation distance between objects increases the force of attraction or
repulsion between the objects. If the distance between the two charges is doubled, the
attraction or repulsion becomes weaker, decreasing to one-fourth of the original value. If the
charges come 10 times closer, the size of the force increases by a factor of 100.

The direction of the force is determined by the symbol of the charges. The terms we use
here are attraction and repulsion. The difference between repulsion and attraction is that
repulsion is the act of repelling or the condition of being repelled while attraction is the
tendency to attract. When there are two negative charges, they will repel one another, while
a positive charge attracts a negative charge.

From the result of this experiment, changing the charge values does not lead to major
changes except for the force values (whether bigger or smaller). However, the charge
symbol will change the direction of the force. For example, from table 1, all directions are

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opposite to each other because both charges are positive. However, in table 2, the directions
of the forces are attracting to each other because the two charges have different symbols.
Table 3 shows that the farther the distance between the two charges, the lower the force
value.

Since, the Coulomb’s law mentions that two electrical charges repel or are attracted by each
other with forces acting on these charge bodies; with forces of same magnitude and
opposite directions, so this law clearly obey Newton’s third law of motion. Newton’s third law
stated that  If an object A exerts a force on object B, then object B must exert a force of
equal magnitude and opposite direction back on object A ("What is Newton's third law?
(article) | Khan Academy", 2020)

10)CONCLUSION
Overall, this virtual experiment was done successfully. We can conclude from this
experiment that the electrostatic force magnitude is relate to the charges and the distance
between them. By changing the values of charges, the force values will whether be larger or
smaller. If we change the distance, the farther distance will lead to the smaller value of force.
Electrostatic forces also proved to obey the Newton’s third law. Newton’s third law stated
that  If an object A exerts a force on object B, then object B must exert a force of equal
magnitude and opposite direction back on object A ("What is Newton's third law? (article) |
Khan Academy", 2020)

11) REFERENCES
a) Law, C. (2020). Coulomb's Law. Retrieved 27 June 2020, from
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/coulombs-law
b) Coulomb's law. (2020, June 18). Retrieved June 22, 2020, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb's_law#Units
c) Coulomb's law. (n.d.). Retrieved June 22, 2020, from
https://www.britannica.com/science/Coulombs-law
d) Physics Tutorial: Inverse Square Law. (n.d.). Retrieved June 22, 2020, from
https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/estatics/Lesson-3/Inverse-Square-Law
e) What is Newton's third law? (article) | Khan Academy. (2020). Retrieved 27 June
2020, from https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/forces-newtons-
laws/newtons-laws-of-motion/a/what-is-newtons-third-law