How Do Like Charges Exert Force Without Using Energy?

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Like charges exert a repulsive force due to the electric field, which does not require energy for the force itself to exist. The concept of electrostatic potential energy explains that energy is stored when work is done to position the charges. While energy is necessary for changes in force, stationary like charges can exert force without energy input. The discussion clarifies that the energy involved is related to the electric field and the work done to arrange the charges. Understanding these principles is essential to grasping how forces operate in electrostatics.
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We all know that energy is required for exerting a pull or push on anything. The amount of energy exerted is proportional to the amount of force exerted and the time period. So if we place 2 like charges near each other, then what energy do they utilize to exert repulsion force on each other.
 
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The energy comes from the electric field.

Note: no energy is required to get a force - consider the case of stationary charges, or a magnet stuck to a fridge.
What you are thinking of is the change of energy.
 
Simon Bridge said:
The energy comes from the electric field.

Absolutely... and if you want to think of this in terms of energy, its called "Electrostatic potential energy"
Someone must have done work to bring those two charges in that position.. and the work did by that "someone" got stored up as the potential energy.
 
aditya ver.2.0 said:
We all know that energy is required for exerting a pull or push on anything. The amount of energy exerted is proportional to the amount of force exerted and the time period.
Neither of those statements is true.
 

Thread 'Why measure the speed of light in one direction?'

It may be shown from the equations of electromagnetism, by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1860’s, that the speed of light in the vacuum of free space is related to electric permittivity (ϵ) and magnetic permeability (μ) by the equation: c=1/√( μ ϵ ) . This value is a constant for the vacuum of free space and is independent of the motion of the observer. It was this fact, in part, that led Albert Einstein to Special Relativity.
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