thank you very much it makes much more sense now, i also noticed that there are absolute value signs around the coloumbs law equation.
one more question:
how do you know that q2 is pulling q3 along the positive x-axis (positive force)
and not the other way around (q3 pulling q2 towards...
the material is over coulombs law, and i am having a rough time understanding the business of the sign's of the charges and the direction of the charge at the same time. here is a problem from the text.:
Two charges are located on the x-axis with q1 = 2.3 x 10^-8 C at the orgin, and with q2...