Coulomb's law

American  

noun

Electricity.

1. the principle that the force between two point charges acts in the direction of the line between them and is directly proportional to the product of their electric charges divided by the square of the distance between them.

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Coulomb's law British  

noun

1. the principle that the force of attraction or repulsion between two point electric charges is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. A similar law holds for particles with mass

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Coulomb's law Scientific  

1. A law stating that the strength of the force exerted by one point charge on another depends on the strength of the charges and on the distance between them. Since Coulomb's law is an inverse square law, higher charges entail stronger force, while greater distances entail weaker force. The force is understood as arising from the electric field that surrounds the charges. The force is repulsive if the charges have the same sign, and attractive if they have opposite sign.

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Etymology

Origin of Coulomb's law

First recorded in 1850–55; after Coulomb

Example Sentences

Coulomb's law gives the magnitude of the force between point charges.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

According to Coulomb's law, the force it exerts on a test charge q is F = k|qQ| / r 2 .

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Also, gravitation is just attraction; Coulomb’s law incorporates both attraction and repulsion.

From Scientific American • Jan. 28, 2013

But Newton’s law deals with very large mass, while Coulomb’s law deals with objects with little mass but large charges.

From Scientific American • Jan. 28, 2013

This, by Coulomb's law, stated above, gives that field-intensity just outside the surface which exists for the actual distribution, and therefore, as can be proved, gives the same field everywhere else outside the surface.

From Lord Kelvin An account of his scientific life and work by Gray, Andrew