Question

The electric force on a charged particle in an electric field is F. What will be the force if the particle’s charge is tripled and the electric field strength is halved?

Short answer

The final force will be$\frac{3}{2}$of the original force.

Step-by-step solution

Content Introduction

An electric force is the attracting or repulsive interaction between any two charged things.

Content Explanation

The electric force is proportional to both the electric field and the charge.

$F=qE$

where, $F$is the force exerted on the charge by the electric field, $q$is the charge and $E$is the electric field.

If we triple the charge, it will come out to be $q\to 3q$and halved the field $E\to \frac{1}{2}E$, then,

$$\begin{gathered} F\text{'}=3q\times \frac{1}{2}E \\ F\text{'}=\frac{3}{2}qE \\ F=\frac{3}{2}F \end{gathered}$$