Electrical and Electronics engineers are therefore supposed to be very familiar with this law. Let’s spend some time to provide a few important facts of the law. For that, we have to go back to the concept of ‘field’.
In modern physics, we usually tend to identify the effect of an entity over another entity with the name of field. Mathematically speaking, a field is a 3-dimensional matrix that assigns a specific value, usually a vector, to each point in the observed space.
Each time we put in that space an object capable of reacting with the field, we end up with a force applied to that object that is the product of the field in that point and the measurable value of that object.
So, in the case of charges, a single charge creates a field in the surrounding space. When we put in that space a second charge, the new charge will be subject to a force that is the product of the charge itself and the value of the field in that point in space.
Because charges can repel or attract, depending on their positive or negative sign, the field itself is directional, and therefore represented with vectors..
Here is a picture representing a field generated by a positive charge:
And here is a picture representing a field generated by a negative charge:
If the charge creating the field is Q, then the field can be represented by the following equation:
where E is the value of the field, actually the module of the field vector, and r is the distance from the charge of a point in space where the field is calculated. The constant ε0 is called “dielectric constant” and, in this formula, it assumes that the charge is located in the void or in thin air. An adjustment to the constant needs to be made when the medium is different.
We call this field an Electrostatic field, hence the E, because the charge that generates it does not move, it is static.
The force on a charge q put in the field can be calculated as:
And, since E is actually a vector, F is therefore also a vector.
If we want to represent this in actual vector format, we can write it as:
where
is the position vector of the charge q with respect to the charge Q. This is what is called Coulomb’s Law.
You can see that if the charges are both positive or both negative, the vector F is oriented such that the charge q moves away from the charge Q and, vice versa, when the charges have opposite sign, F is oriented toward Q.
That is exactly what we expected: charges of the same sign repel each other and charges of opposite sign attract each other.
As a further example, here is the graphical representation of an electrostatic field generated by two charges of opposite sign:
… and finally an electrostatic field generated by two charges of the same sign:
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