Coulomb's Law

Coulomb's law is a fundamental formula for calculating electric force. The formula states that the force between two point-charges is proportional to the product of their charge, divided by the square of the distance between them.

This is expressed mathematically with the following formula:

Coulomb's law. F = k*q1q2/r^2.

• F is the force 
• k is a constant
• q1 is a charge
• q2 is another charge
• r is the distance between the charges

What should be noted is the curious fact that the charges have to be multiplied together rather than added together. This is a strong indication that the mechanism for transmission of electric force is through collisions of information carrying particles, as proposed in the chapter on the neutrino.

To illustrate this, consider two point-charges. Imagine a very fine grid placed half way between the two charges. This grid is so constructed that only one neutrino can pass through each opening in it.

Let us further suppose that the charges are located at such a distance from the grid that any neutrino bouncing off a charge in the general direction of the other charge has a 2000 by 2000 subsection of the grid through which it can enter. That is four million opening all together.

Let us also suppose that the two charges are so weak that they only shoot one photon towards this grid from each side. For simplicity, the neutrinos head towards the grid at the exact same time.

The chance that the two neutrinos will meet in a collision is for this configuration one in four million. One neutrino goes through one of the four million possible opening, and the other neutrino has a one in four million chance of colliding as it enters the grid from the other side.

Neutrinos carrying charge information towards an imaginary grid.

Let us now move the two charges so that they are twice as far away from each other.

This results in a larger part of the grid being available for the neutrinos. It is no longer a 2000 by 2000 area that the neutrinos can go through, but a 4000 by 4000 area. That is sixteen million openings all together.

This is simple geometry. The footprint of a cone increases by the square of its distance from the base.

By doubling the distance between the charges, the chance of a collision between neutrinos has dropped from one in four million to one in sixteen million. The force drops off according to the inverse square law of the distance between the charged spheres.

This is the inverse square law as expressed by the r^2 term in Coulomb's law.

Let us now triple the strength of the point charges so that each sphere shoots three neutrinos at the grid rather than one.

Three of the sixteen million openings are now covered by neutrinos coming from one side. Each of the three neutrinos coming from the other side have a three in sixteen million chance of hitting one of the oncoming neutrinos. The chance of a collision is no longer one in sixteen million, but three times tree in sixteen million.

Tripling the strength of the two charges increases the chance of a collision by nine times.

Using a particle model for force, we find ourselves multiplying one charge with the other charge in order to calculate the force, precisely as expressed in Coulomb's law.

The q1 q2 term in Coulomb's law reflects the fact that force is carried by particles that collide to produce under-pressure and over-pressure.

Finally, we have the constant k. This is a measurement of availability of neutrinos.

Coulomb's law explained.

The two point-charges q1 and q2 do not affect each other directly, but indirectly by sharing information with neutrinos. The availability of neutrinos is in other words an important factor in the production of electric force. With no neutrinos to communicate the force, there can be no force.

Seeing that our universe is rather unevenly distributed as far as visible matter is concerned, it is reasonable to assume that neutrinos may be more plentiful in certain regions than other regions.

The constant k is therefore unlikely to be a truly universal constant. Rather, it's a measure of the current availability of neutrinos in our region of space. The availability of neutrinos may be vastly different in other places, and it may even have been vastly different in our own region of space in the past.

The term k in Coulomb's law is not a constant, but a variable.