Back to 5.3 Coulomb's Law

5.3 Exercise 15

Avg difficulty 2.5

The net excess charge on two small spheres (small enough to be treated as point charges) is Q. Show that the force of repulsion between the spheres is greatest when each sphere has an excess charge Q/2. Assume that the distance between the spheres is so large compared with their radii that the spheres can be treated as point charges.

OpenStax University Physics Volume 2, 5.3 Coulomb's Law, exercise 15

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Adapted from University Physics Volume 2 © 2016 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: University Physics Volume 2. Imported at revision db44eb9.