- #1
RubinLicht
- 132
- 8
I am aware that there have been a few posts about this, I read most of them so I just want to confirm that what I've picked up is correct.
The principle of superposition only applies to forces that depend linearly on some quantity (charge and mass for example), and since we wouldn't know whether or not the force is linear until we do experiments with three charges, there is no way of knowing until that experiment confirms the linearity of the (in this case) electric force with respect to q.
I haven't really learned much about linearity formally in school, and thanks to how weak American math education is (11th grade now), I had to pick all this up on my own. If the terminology I used or explanation was not satisfactory, please point it out. Thanks friends.
The principle of superposition only applies to forces that depend linearly on some quantity (charge and mass for example), and since we wouldn't know whether or not the force is linear until we do experiments with three charges, there is no way of knowing until that experiment confirms the linearity of the (in this case) electric force with respect to q.
I haven't really learned much about linearity formally in school, and thanks to how weak American math education is (11th grade now), I had to pick all this up on my own. If the terminology I used or explanation was not satisfactory, please point it out. Thanks friends.