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Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply Coulomb's law, is an experimental law [1] of physics that calculates the amount of force between two electrically charged particles at rest. This electric force is conventionally called the electrostatic force or Coulomb force . [ 2 ]
Coulomb's law and Newton's law of universal gravitation are based on action at a distance. Historically, action at a distance was the earliest scientific model for gravity and electricity and it continues to be useful in many practical cases. In the 19th and 20th centuries, field models arose to explain these phenomena with more precision.
In special relativity, the rule that Wilczek called "Newton's Zeroth Law" breaks down: the mass of a composite object is not merely the sum of the masses of the individual pieces. [84]: 33 Newton's first law, inertial motion, remains true. A form of Newton's second law, that force is the rate of change of momentum, also holds, as does the ...
A non-perturbative relativistic quantum theory, in which Lorentz invariance is preserved, is achievable by evaluating Coulomb's law as a 4-space interaction using the 3-space position vector of a reference electron obeying Dirac's equation and the quantum trajectory of a second electron which depends only on the scaled time. The quantum ...
Coulomb's law has charge in place of mass and a different constant. Newton's law was later superseded by Albert Einstein 's theory of general relativity , but the universality of the gravitational constant is intact and the law still continues to be used as an excellent approximation of the effects of gravity in most applications.
What is plain from this definition, though, is that the unit of E is N/C (newtons per coulomb). This unit is equal to V/m (volts per meter); see below. In electrostatics, where charges are not moving, around a distribution of point charges, the forces determined from Coulomb's law may be summed. The result after dividing by q 0 is:
Faraday's law of induction was suggestive to Einstein when he wrote in 1905 about the "reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor". [ 15 ] Nevertheless, the aspiration, reflected in references for this article, is for an analytic geometry of spacetime and charges providing a deductive route to forces and currents in practice.
The electric field was based on using a hypothetical "test charge" anywhere in space and then using Coulomb's Law to determine the electrostatic force. [ 38 ] : 4-6–4-8 Thus the electric field anywhere in space is defined as E = F q , {\displaystyle \mathbf {E} ={\mathbf {F} \over {q}},} where q {\displaystyle q} is the magnitude of the ...