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What is Electric Force?-Definition, And Examples

August 17, 2022
written by Adeel Abbas

The repulsive or attractive interaction between two charged bodies is referred to as an electric force.

What is Electric Force?

There are many types of forces in the world of physics, including electric force. Newton’s Laws of Motion explain how and why forces are used to move things. The electric force that creates the interaction between the two charged particles is on the smallest scale. Positive or negative charges can be applied to these charges.

There is an electric force that can be created on a larger scale if there is an abundance of either of these particles. Electricity allows us to live in the modern world with lights and technology because electric force is the reason why hair will sometimes stand up on its own. The electric force that causes lightning to strike is present in nature. The electric force is a fundamental part of our way of living.

The electric force depends on

  • Amount of Electric Charge on particle
  • Distance between the particles

Coulomb’s law

Coulomb’s law might be used to calculate the electric force between charges.

This law state that The force of attraction or repulsion between two static charges is directly proportional to the product of magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Electric Force Examples

There are some common examples of electric force.

Hair standing up:

The hair is charged when it is brushed because the hairbrush strips electrons from hair strands. The negatively charged hairbrush is the result of the addition of electrons to it. Since the hair is positively charged and repels forces, hair strands will move away from each other, resulting in the hair standing up.

Current electricity: 

Our everyday technology is powered by current electricity, which is the consistent flow of electrons through the materials. The flow is caused by the electric force, as the electrons flow from a negative source to a positive source.  

Lightning: 

It is common for a lot of electrons to build up on the bottom of a cloud, making that part of the cloud negatively charged during a storm. Positive charges in the ground start to gather on the surface or even on tall objects such as trees as they are attracted towards the negatively charged undersides of clouds These charges have become extremely built, which has led to lightning strikes.