What does Coulomb's law describe?

Coulomb's law describes the force between two charged objects, detailing how the magnitude of this force is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Formulated by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb in the 18th century, it is expressed mathematically as:

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

where ( F ) is the force between the charges, ( q_1 ) and ( q_2 ) are the magnitudes of the charges, ( r ) is the distance between the centers of the two charges, and ( k ) is Coulomb's constant. This law is foundational in electrostatics, illustrating how charged objects interact through electric forces, which can be attractive or repulsive based on the signs of the charges involved.

Understanding this relationship is critical for deeper concepts in physics, such as electric fields and potentials, as well as phenomena that involve electric forces in various contexts, including capacitors and circuits.