[Physics] Coulomb’s Law- Why the Coulomb’s law is valid only for point and static charges

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Why the coulomb's law is valid only for point and static charges?
Is there is any definite reason?

Best Answer

It is really valid for distributions too, but you need to use the integral form.

To see why it is only "valid" for point charges, take a look at the equation (for a point particle, the one you have probably been looking at). It refers to the distance from the source, which is only defined for a point, not a distribution.

It is however not valid for moving charges. This is because the information about the position of the charge (the field caused by the charge) can only travel at the speed of light. See this link if you're interested in moving charges.

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