Coulomb's Law describes the electrostatic force between two point charges. In vector form, it can be expressed as:
F = k * (q₁ * q₂) / r² * r
Where:
F is the electrostatic force vector between the two charges.
k is Coulomb's constant, approximately equal to 8.9875 x 10^9 N m²/C² (in SI units).
q₁ and q₂ are the magnitudes of the two point charges.
r is the distance between the charges.
r is the unit vector pointing from the first charge to the second charge.
It's important to note that this equation describes the force vector experienced by one of the charges due to the presence of the other charge. The force is attractive if the charges have opposite signs (one is positive and the other is negative), and repulsive if the charges have the same sign (both positive or both negative).
The expression "1/r²" in the formula highlights the inverse square relationship between the distance and the force magnitude. As the distance between charges increases, the force decreases rapidly, and vice versa.
Remember that this formula holds for point charges, which are conceptually idealized charges concentrated at a single point in space. For more complex charge distributions, you might need to integrate the contributions of individual charge elements to calculate the total electrostatic force.