More Electrostatics

For the last two weeks or so, we have been talking about electrostatic in class. Electrostatics is the study of the electric charges and fields. Shocking stuff. In class, we have learned that objects are attracted or repelled from each other based on their charge. We have learned a lot of different equations to calculate force and charge between objects. One is the inverse square law, which states that the force on an object will be inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two objects. What this means is that the further away an object is from another object, the less force there will be on that object. Inversely, the closer to an object is to another object, the greater the force on that object. This can be represented with the equation F=(proportional to) 1/r².

In the picture below, my phone is 4 inches from my wallet.

In the next picture, my phone is 6 inches from my wallet

Because my wallet is further away in the second picture, the force on my phone is greater in the first picture than the second.