## anonymous 4 years ago Explain how positive and negative charges exert forces on each other.

1. anonymous

They exchange longitudinal photons.

2. anonymous

Thanks . Anything else ?

3. anonymous

Perhaps you need to ask a more focussed question.

4. anonymous

Okay.

5. anonymous

For example, you could ask: "What determines the strength and direction of the force that two charges exert on each other?" Or "What are the differences between the force positive charges exert on one another, and on the force a positive and negative charge exert on each other?" Or "Is there any explanation for why charge comes in positive and negative?" And so on. I'm not being sarcastic. Your question as stated is way to vague to be easily answered. Nor is this a pointless exercise: you may find that by thinking hard about the precise question you need answering, you will be able to answer it yourself. Very often this happens -- that 75% of finding the answer to a question is stating the question precisely and accurately. You will certainly find that stating a question as precisely as you can gets you a more helpful answer.

6. anonymous

Mmkay . Thanks . I get what you're talking about . :)

7. JamesJ

For the record, "They exchange longitudinal photons" is not an answer you should write on your high school Physics assignment. The short answer is it's a law of nature that electric charges exert a force on each other. That force is - proportional to the size of those charges - depends their relative sign . two positive charges repel each other . two negative charges repel each other . a positive and a negative charge attract each other - is inversely proportional the square of the distance between them . hence for example if you halved the distance between the charges, the force would increase by a factor of $$\frac{1}{(1/2)^2} = 2^2 = 4$$.

8. anonymous

Thanks again James J !!!!!! :)