Calculating Electric Force: Charged Clouds and the Power of 20 C Separated by 3 km

Sure, we can solve this by using Coulomb’s law for the force between two charges, which is given by: F = k * |q1 * q2| / r^2 where: F is the magnitude of the force between the charges, k is the electrostatic constant (also known as Coulomb's constant), q1 and q2 are the amounts of charge, and r is the separation distance between the charges. In this case: k = 8.98755 × 10^9 N·m^2/C^2 q1 = 20 C q2 = -20 C (we can just take the magnitude so it will also be 20 C) r = 3 km = 3000 m (we need to convert km to m because charge is measured in Coulombs which are in the basic SI unit system, which uses meters, not kilometers) Substituting these values into the formula, we get: F = (8.98755 × 10^9 N·m^2/C^2) * (20 C * 20 C) / (3000 m)^2 = (8.98755 × 10^9 N·m^2/C^2) * 400 C^2 / 9,000,000 m^2 = 3.99557778 x 10^9 N So, the magnitude of the electric force is approximately 3.99557778 × 10^9 N.