Why we don’t put a minus sign in Coulomb's law

[Zain580]

While calculating the force between two charges , why we don't put minus sign with charge.

 

[PeterDonis]

Moderator's note: Moved to General Physics.

 

[PeterDonis]

While calculating the force between two charges , why we don't put minus sign with charge.

Because like charges repel: that is, the force between them makes them accelerate away from each other, which is a positive acceleration (positive sign of force) according to the usual convention.

 

[sophiecentaur]

If you start with distances from origin as positive and the sign of a Force corresponding to the same direction (which makes sense) then like charges will produce a positive force etc..

 

[Vanadium 50]

why we don't put minus sign with charge.

This is a slightly different question than the title. If you put it with each charge, you will have two minus signs which will result in a plus.

 

[sophiecentaur]

why we don't put minus sign with charge.

For the same reason that we use x on a graph when the value of x can be positive or negative. That's a general thing with Algebra. If it didn't work that way, we' have to have different arithmetic depending on whether the variables we used were positive or negative.