Activities

1. How does the force on one particle compare to the force on the other particle? Try varying the charge on each particle, and dragging particle 2 left or right to see whether this relationship always holds.
2. Given the limits on the sliders, and limitations set by how far left or right you can move particle 2, what is the largest magnitude force you can get on particle 2? How do you achieve this? What is the smallest non-zero magnitude force you can get on particle 2? How do you achieve this?
3. If you change the charge on particle 1 by a factor of 2, what happens to the two forces? If you change the charge on particle 2 by a factor of 2, what happens to the two forces? What happens if you simply reverse the sign of one of the charges? How do you think the force on either particle depends on the values of the two charges?
4. If you double the distance between the particles, what happens to the two forces? What if you triple the distance instead? How do you think the force on either particle depends on the distance between the particles?