Magnitude of the electric force?

[danish1991]

Need help calculating a problem, the questions states that. "Three charges are located at the corners of an equilaterial triangle. What is the magnitude of the electrical force on q1? I am really confused with this problem, i been trying to solve this problem and still had no luck ANY HELP WILL BE REALLY APPRECIATED!
q1=+2.0uc
q2=+2.0uc
q3=+2.0uc
distance between each 20cm
Its shaped as an triangle q1 being on top and q2 and q3 being on the corners.
q1=+2.0uc
/\
/ \
/ \
20cm / \20cm
/ \
/ \
q2=+2.0uc /_______ \q3=+2.0uc
20cm

 

[iRaid]

Well start with the equation:
$$F=\frac{kq_{1}q_{2}}{r^{2}}$$
for each of the particles. Add up the vectors in the x and y directions.

 

[danish1991]

How would you determine the number of vectors? Sorry but I am really bad at physics

 

[tiny-tim]

Add up the vectors in the x and y directions.

sorry, iRaid, but that's really not clear

How would you determine the number of vectors? Sorry but I am really bad at physics

there's only two vectors, one from each of the other two charges

you need to find the magnitude and direction of those vectors, and then add them as vectors

do you know how to add vectors?​

 

[Nickie]

The magnitude of the electric force on q1 depends on the distance between q1 and the other charges, as well as the magnitude of those charges. In this case, we have three charges of the same magnitude (+2.0uc) located at the corners of an equilateral triangle with sides of 20cm. To calculate the electric force on q1, we can use Coulomb's law, which states that the force between two charges is directly proportional to the product of their magnitudes and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

In this case, we have three charges, so we need to calculate the force between q1 and each of the other charges (q2 and q3) separately. Then, we can add these forces together to find the total force on q1.

Let's start by calculating the force between q1 and q2. The distance between them is 20cm, or 0.2m. Plugging this into Coulomb's law, we get:

F12 = k * q1 * q2 / d^2
= (9 * 10^9 N*m^2/C^2) * (2.0 * 10^-6 C) * (2.0 * 10^-6 C) / (0.2 m)^2
= 9 * 10^9 * 4 * 10^-12 / 0.04
= 3.6 * 10^-3 N

So, the force between q1 and q2 is 3.6 * 10^-3 N. Similarly, we can calculate the force between q1 and q3:

F13 = k * q1 * q3 / d^2
= (9 * 10^9 N*m^2/C^2) * (2.0 * 10^-6 C) * (2.0 * 10^-6 C) / (0.2 m)^2
= 9 * 10^9 * 4 * 10^-12 / 0.04
= 3.6 * 10^-3 N

So, the force between q1 and q3 is also 3.6 * 10^-3 N. Now, we can find the total force on q1 by adding these two forces together:

F1 = F12 + F13
= 3.6