A Comparison and Contrast of Newton's Universal Law of Gravity with Coulomb's Law of Electric Charges.

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation states, “Every object in the universe attracts every other object with a force directed along the line of centers for the two objects that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the separation between the two objects.”

Fg = G x (m1 x m2 /r squared)

Coulomb’s Law states “The magnitude of electrostatic force between two point electric charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of each of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the total distance between the two charges.

F = k x (q1 xq2 / d squared)

“So Newton’s law of gravitation for massive bodies is similar to Coulomb’s law for electrically charged bodies.  Whereas the gravitational force of attraction between such particles as an electron and a proton is extremely small, the electrical force between these particles is relatively enormous.  Other than the big difference in strength, the most important difference between gravitational and electrical forces is that electrical forces may be either attractive or repulsive, whereas gravitational forces are only attractive.”  (Conceptual Physics, Pg. 414)

Works Cited

Hewitt, Paul G.. Conceptual Physics. Boston, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley, 2006