Intersection of a polyhedron with a line

From formulasearchengine
Jump to navigation Jump to search

In physics, Coulomb's law is an inverse-square law indicating the magnitude and direction of electrostatic force that one stationary, electrically charged object of small dimensions exerts on another. It is named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb who used a torsion balance to establish it.

The magnitude of the electrostatic force between two point charges is directly proportional to the magnitudes of each charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges.

For calculating the direction and magnitude of the force simultaneously, one will wish to consult the full vector version of the Law

F=14πϵ0q1q2|r|3r=14πϵ0q1q2|r|2r^
where F is the electrostatic force vector, q1 is the charge on which the force acts, q2 is the acting charge, r=r1r2 is the distance vector between the two charges, r1 is position vector of q1, r2 is position vector of q2, r^ is a unit vector pointing in the direction of r, and ϵ0 is a constant called the permittivity of free space.

This vector equation indicates that opposite charges attract, and like charges repel. When q1q2 is negative, the force is attractive. When positive, the force is repulsive.