Question
A charged object has a net force of 100 N east acting on it due to an electric field of 50 N/C pointing north. How is this possible? If not, why not?
Final Answer
This is not possible. The direction of the electric field is the direction of force on a positive charge. A positive charge would experience a force North. A negative charge would experience a force South. East is not possible.
Solution video
OpenStax College Physics for AP® Courses, Chapter 19, Problem 4 (Test Prep for AP® Courses)
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Video Transcript
This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. We are told that a charged object has a net force on it acting to the East and that's due to an electric field pointing to the North and is this possible and if not why not? So this is not possible because the electric field direction is defined to be the direction that the force would be on a positive charge so if we have a positive charge here, this electric field is pointing up because the direction of force on this positive charge would be up; if the charge is negative, the force would be in the opposite direction to the field in which case a force would be straight down towards the South but having the force going to the East due to this field is not possible.