Question

Is the electrostatic force always attractive?

Answer 1

Explanation:

1. There is an electrostatic force between two charged bodies.
2. In the universe, there are two different types of charge: positive charge and negative charge, as you may recall another fundamental fact is that charges are attracted to each other and oppose each other.
3. Therefore, the electrostatic force between two positive and negative charges will always be attracting, whereas the electrostatic force between two positive charges and that between two negative charges will always be repulsive.
4. Coulomb’s Law is stated as the following equation.

$F_e=k_e\frac{q_1{q}_2}{r^2}$

Where, $F_e=$force, $k_e=$the coulomb's constant, $q_1\&q_2$ are the signed magnitudes of the charges, $r=$the distance between the charges.

The attractive electrostatic force is considered as negative while repulsive force is considered as pisitive.

Hence, the electrostatic force is not always positive, the force will be negative if there are two opposite charges, (one is positive and the other one is negative).