Here's why:
* Coulomb's Law: The electrical force between two charges is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Mathematically:
* F = k * (q1 * q2) / r^2
where:
* F is the electrical force
* k is Coulomb's constant
* q1 and q2 are the charges
* r is the distance between the charges
* Halving the distance: If you halve the distance (r/2), the denominator in the equation becomes (r/2)^2, which is equal to r^2 / 4. This means the force is now divided by 1/4, which is the same as multiplying the force by 4.
Therefore, the electrical force increases fourfold when the distance between the charges is halved.
