Three equal charges, 2.0 × 10–6 C each, are held fixed at the three corners of an equilateral triangle of side 5 cm. Find the Coulomb force experienced by one of the charges due to the rest two.

Given:


Let the force due to charge at corner B, C be FB, FC.


Charge at each corner, .


Note that the length of side of the triangle is.


________________________________________________


Formula used:


By Coulomb’s law, the electric force is given by:



Where ϵ0 is the permittivity of free space


k is the electrostatic constant


q1 and q2 are the magnitude of charges


r is the distance of separation between the charges


__________________________________________________




Putting the values in the above formula, we get



We can see from the diagram that FCand FBcab be resolved into theirs x and y components.






The y’s are in the same direction and add up but the x’s are in the opposite direction, hence they cancel out.


Hence,




1