Questions: Decide how the sketches below would be listed, if they were listed in order of decreasing force between the charges. That is, select "1" beside the sketch with the strongest force between the charges, select "2" beside the sketch with the next strongest force between the charges, and so on. Note for advanced students: since the units of each charge are not written, you may assume any convenient and reasonable unit, for example coulombs or multiples of e.

Solution Steps

Coulomb's Law states that the force \( F \) between two charges \( q_1 \) and \( q_2 \) separated by a distance \( r \) is given by: \[ F = k \frac{q_1 q_2}{r^2} \] where \( k \) is Coulomb's constant. The force is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Assume the sketches show different pairs of charges with varying distances. To determine the force between the charges, we need to consider both the magnitudes of the charges and the distances between them.

For each sketch, calculate the relative force using the formula \( F \propto \frac{q_1 q_2}{r^2} \). Since the units of the charges are not given, we assume they are in convenient units like coulombs or multiples of \( e \).

List the sketches in order of decreasing force by comparing the values of \( \frac{q_1 q_2}{r^2} \) for each sketch.

Final Answer