• pewter@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    q1 and q2 can be negative. The force is the same as if they were positive because -1 x -1 = 1

    • Limitless_screaming@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      In this case yes, but if q1 was -20μC, q2 was 30μC, and r was 0.5m, then using -20μC as it is would make F equal to -21.6N which is just 21.6N of attraction force between the two charges.

    • Pinklink@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      But that if both are negative not one pos one neg like the previous commenter gave in their examples, so the true formula has an absolute value in the numerator: |q1Xq2|