How did Coulomb arrive at his law from his experiments?
Understand the Problem
The question seeks to understand how Coulomb established the relationship between electric charges through his experiments and the resulting law of electrostatic force, specifically exploring the methods used and the derivation behind Coulomb's law.
Answer
Coulomb used a torsion balance to show force depends inversely on the square of the distance.
Coulomb used a torsion balance to measure the force between charged spheres. By varying the distance and measuring the force, he found it depended inversely on the square of the distance, similar to gravitational force laws.
Answer for screen readers
Coulomb used a torsion balance to measure the force between charged spheres. By varying the distance and measuring the force, he found it depended inversely on the square of the distance, similar to gravitational force laws.
More Information
Coulomb's method involved using symmetrical assumptions and adjusting distance to derive the inverse-square relationship without knowing the explicit charges.
Tips
Not considering the inverse square law properly can lead to errors.
Sources
- Torsion Balance – 1785 - Magnet Academy - National MagLab - nationalmaglab.org
- June 1785: Coulomb Measures the Electric Force - aps.org
- Coulomb's Law - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org
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