Question

1. gather data: turn on show angle. for each combination of charges in the table below, record the product of the two charges and the resulting angle. (note: if you like, you can type the charge values directly into the text boxes to the right of each slider and hit \enter.\)

q1	q2	q1×q2	angle
6.0×10^(-6) c	4.0×10^(-6) c	2.4×10^(-11) c2
8.0×10^(-6) c	3.0×10^(-6) c	2.4×10^(-11) c2
16.0×10^(-6) c	1.0×10^(-6) c	1.6×10^(-11) c2
-4.0×10^(-6) c	-4.0×10^(-6) c	1.6×10^(-11) c2

1. analyze: how does the electrostatic force relate to the product of the charges? explain.

Explanation:

Step1: Recall Coulomb's law

The electrostatic force \(F = k\frac{q_1q_2}{r^2}\), where \(k\) is the Coulomb's constant (\(k = 9\times10^{9}\ N\cdot m^{2}/C^{2}\)), \(q_1\) and \(q_2\) are the charges, and \(r\) is the distance between the charges.

Step2: Analyze the relationship

From the formula, when the distance \(r\) is kept constant, the electrostatic force \(F\) is directly - proportional to the product of the two charges \(q_1q_2\). That is, as the product \(q_1q_2\) increases, the electrostatic force \(F\) increases, and as the product \(q_1q_2\) decreases, the electrostatic force \(F\) decreases.

Answer:

The electrostatic force is directly proportional to the product of the two charges when the distance between them is constant.