Question

You are holding a positive charge and there are positive charges of equal magnitude 1 m to your north and 1 m to your east. What is the direction of the force on the charge you are holding?

1. to the east
2. to the southwest
3. to the south
4. to the northeast

Answer 1

southwest

Step-by-step explanation:

Here, all the particles have same charge this means that only repulsive force is acting on the particles according to Coulomb's laws.

One particle is 1 m to my north and another particle is to my east.

The particle to my north will push the positive charge I am holding to the south and the particle to my east will push the positive charge I am holding to the west.

Hence, the resultant direction of the force will be southwest.