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COULOMB’S LAW
 COULOMB’S LAW
• In 1785, The French Physician Charles Augustine
De coulomb Published His First Three Reports Of
Electricity And Magnetism Where He Stated His
Law.

• He experimentally established the fundamental law

of electric force between two stationary charged
particles.

• Development Of The Theory Of Electromagnetism.

 COULOMB’S LAW

• He used a Torsion Balance to study the repulsion

and attraction forces of charged particles.
 COULOMB’S LAW STATEMENT

• Between two point charges

there is force of attraction or
repulsion depending upon the
nature of charges.
OR
• The force of attraction/repulsion
between two charges is directly
proportional to the product of
charges and inversely
proportional to the square of
distance between them.
 Properties of Electrical Force
An electric force has the following properties:

• It is directed along a line joining the two particles

and is inversely proportional to the square of the
separation distance r, between them.

• It is proportional to the product of the

magnitudes of the charges, q1 and q2 , of the two
particles.

• It is attractive if the charges are of opposite sign

and repulsive if the charges have the same sign.
 Discovery of Coulomb’s Law
• Coulomb performed an experiment and stated the
Coulomb’s Law in accordance with it.
• He used torsion balance and two spheres
• He recorded measures of force by varying
distance of both spheres and then proceeded to
the conclusion.
 Discovery of Coulomb’s Law

• The magnitude of the force depends on the medium.

• By combining two equations we get,

• Using Proportionality K We Get,

 Discovery of Coulomb’s Law

 The Constant Of
Proportionality Is Given
By:

 Then the Force is Given by

following equation:
 LIMITATIONS

 The charges to be considered are point charge.

 They should be stationary with each other.

 The law is valid if both the charges are kept in a

vacuum.
COULOMB’S LAW IN VECTOR FORM
 Coulomb’s Law In Superposition Form
• Electric forces follow the law of superposition.

• If more than one charge is causing a force on object

1, then the net force acting on object 1 is just the
sum of all the individual forces acting on 1.
 Applications
 To calculate force(F) or distance(R) between two
charges.

 To calculate electric field:

 To calculate force on one point due to several points

(superposition theorem).
 Disadvantage
• We can’t apply directly the coulomb’s law calculate
charge on big planets