PhET Simulation: Coulomb's Law

This engaging inquiry based lab activity will guide your students to an understanding of Coulomb’s law as they learn what factors affect the force between two charged particles. This online lab is intended to be used with the Coulomb’s Law HTML5 Simulation from PhET interactive simulations. The link for the simulation can be found inside the resource.

In the first activity students will learn how to determine the direction of the force between two charged particles. In the second activity students will determine the relationship between the force and the amount of charge on the particles.
In the third activity students will determine the relationship between the force and the distance between the charged particles.

In the summary questions students will practice what they have learned from the simulation and will use the Coulomb’s law equation to calculate coulomb’s constant and the magnitude of the force between two charged particles.

PhET simulations incorporate research based, student centered activities that are fun and easy to use. All of the PhET simulations are available from their website: hET Interactive Simulations. This PhET online simulation can be done from the classroom or during distance learning.

This product includes:
(1) The lab activity worksheets.
(2) An answer key for the worksheets.
(3) Notes covering a full description of Coulomb’s law.