Coulomb's Law/Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation (Precalculus?)

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on applying Coulomb's Law to determine how changes in charge and distance affect the electric field. The electric field is directly proportional to the charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance. An increase of 40% in charge and 30% in distance leads to the new charge being 1.4Q and the distance being 1.3D. Participants emphasize using the ratio of initial and final values in Coulomb's formula to compute the electric field change. The conversation concludes with a participant expressing gratitude for the clarification received.
Bill Nye Tho
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Homework Statement


The electric field, E, a distance D away from a charged particle is directly proportional to the size of the charge Q, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance D. If the charge is increased by 40% and the distance is increased by 30%, by what percentage does the electric field change?

Homework Equations



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The Attempt at a Solution



I'm actually pretty upset with how rusty I am at this but for some reason when I read these problems (and precalculus gravitational problems), I can't seem to get Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism equations out of my mind. Although, I know that the answer will pretty much apply Coulomb's Law. Maybe I'm overthinking this..

ED = Q = 1/D^2

+.35(Q)
+.2(D)

Is all I'm interpreting from the question.
 
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What do +.35(Q) and +.2(D) mean?
 
SteamKing said:
What do +.35(Q) and +.2(D) mean?

Ah, I'm sorry.

I meant to write +.4Q and +.3D.

I'm increasing the charge by 40% and the distance by 30%
 
Bill Nye Tho said:
Ah, I'm sorry.

I meant to write +.4Q and +.3D.

I'm increasing the charge by 40% and the distance by 30%

If you increase Q by 40% then Q becomes 1.4Q. The original electric field is E=kQ/D^2. Compute the ratio of the new field to the original field.
 
Dick said:
If you increase Q by 40% then Q becomes 1.4Q. Think about it.

I know that, I'm just separating the added charge and added distance from the setup because I'm not even sure if I have that done correctly.
 
Bill Nye Tho said:
I know that, I'm just separating the added charge and added distance from the setup because I'm not even sure if I have that done correctly.

That you understand it would be pretty hard to tell when you write things like +.35(Q) and +.2(D). If you know the ratio of initial and final charges and distance then use Coulomb's formula to compute the ratio of electric fields. This is pretty straightforward.
 
Dick said:
That you understand it would be pretty hard to tell when you write things like +.35(Q) and +.2(D). If you know the ratio of initial and final charges and distance then use Coulomb's formula to compute the ratio of charges. This is pretty straightforward.

I think I figured it out, with your help. Thanks
 
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