Coulomb's law states that the force between two point electric charges is inversely proportional to what?

Coulomb's law articulates that the electrostatic force between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This can be expressed mathematically as:

[ F = k \frac{|q_1 \cdot q_2|}{r^2} ]

In this equation, ( F ) represents the force between the charges, ( q_1 ) and ( q_2 ) are the amounts of the charges, ( r ) is the distance separating the two charges, and ( k ) is Coulomb's constant.

The key aspect of the law is the inverse square relationship with distance. This means that as the distance between the two charges increases, the magnitude of the force decreases sharply; specifically, if you double the distance, the force becomes one-fourth as strong. Therefore, understanding this inverse square relationship highlights the significant impact of distance on the force between two electric charges.

The other choices do not accurately represent this inverse relationship. The distance affects the force, but it is specifically the square of the distance that matters, establishing the distinction in how these options relate to the principles outlined in Coulomb