Okay, sorry for the delayed response. First, thanks for the clarification - I guess it's a good think I have this and other problems to solve if I wasn't able to recognize that by looking at the problem. It means I def. need the practice. I forgot that coulomb's law was just for point charges...
so it seems a few years later, another lucky physics student (that's me) gets a chance at solving this problem. Let me explain my thought process in the hope of getting some feedback because the explanation is not making much sense to me.
This problem should be treated no differently than...