Name:

Block:
Coulombs Law and Electric Fields Worksheet
1) A 8 C charge and a +4 C are separated by 35 m. What is the magnitude of the force acting between the charges?
2) Add the following vectors and calculate the magnitude and direction of the resultant vector:
8 N at 22 below the -x-axis
15 N at 80 above the +x-axis
25 N along the +x-axis
13 N along the +y-axis.
3) Charges are placed on a straight number line. A +13 C charge is placed at the origin. A +24 C charge is placed at
6 m, a +4 C charge is placed at +7 m, a +12 C charge is placed at +10 m, and a -7 C charge is placed at 5 m.
What is the magnitude and direction of the force acting on the charge at the origin?
4) Four charges are placed at the corners of a rectangle as in the drawing below. Calculate the net force acting on the 10 C charge.
12 cm
+7 C

+5 C

5 cm

-3 C

-10 C

5) In the previous problem, calculate the electric field strength at the exact center of the rectangle.
6) Four +3 mC charges are placed at the four corners of a square that is 50 cm on each side. A fifth charge of 5 mC is
placed on one side of the square half way between two of the corner charges. What is the net force acting on this
charge? [for the sake of consistency, draw your square so that the fifth charge is on the right hand side of the square].
7) Three charges are placed at the corners of an isosceles triangle with base angles of 50. The base of the triangle is
2 m long. A + 3 mC charge is placed at the top of the triangle, a 5 mC charge is placed at one of the base angles
(make it the right corner), and a + 2 mC charge is placed at the other corner. Calculate the net force acting on the
+ 2 mC charge.

+3 mC

+2 mC

2m

-5 mC

8) In the previous problem, calculate the electric field strength at the exact center of the base of the triangle.
9) In the set up below, find the magnitude and direction of the electric field at a point 3 m to the right of the +6 nC
charge.

2m
+3n
C

+6n
C

10) What is E in magnitude and direction at the exact center of the square below? Assume q = 1.0 x 10-8 C.

+5q

-2q
10 cm

+4q

+3q

11) An electric dipole consists of a positive charge q and a negative charge q separated by a distance. Consider an
electric dipole in which q = 2.5 x 10-5 C in which the positive charge is located at +5 cm on the x-axis and the
negative charge is at 10 cm on the x-axis. What is the electric field strength at +20 cm on the y-axis?
12) Charges are arranged at the three corners of an isosceles right triangle that is 25 cm on each leg. The charge at the
corner with the right angle is +7 nC and the charge at each of the two other corners is 5 nC. What is the magnitude
and direction of the Electric Field at a point at the center of the hypotenuse?
13) In Millikans Oil Drop Experiment, Robert Millikan measured the electric charge on an electron by suspending
charged oil droplets in an electric field. One way to do this is to adjust the electric field between two plates so that
the electric force exactly equals the weight of the oil droplet (note this is not actually how Millikan did his
experiment, but it works for this problem!). Suppose that in one of Millikans trials, he discovered that it took an
electric field of 1 x 104 N/C to suspend an oil droplet with a weight of 9.77 x 10-15 N. What is the charge on this oil
droplet? How many electrons do you suppose are on this droplet?
14) Two point charges are fixed at a distance d apart (see below). Sketch a graph of the electric field strength, E, with
respect to the distance away from q1, x, assuming x = 0 at q1. Consider both positive and negative values of x. Plot E
as positive if E points to the right and negative if E points to the left. Assume q1 = +1.0 x 10-6 C, q2 = +3.0 x 10-6 C,
and d = 10 cm.

d
q1

q2