Charles Augustin Coulomb and the fundamental law of electrostatics

Abstract

In his famous experiment on the inverse square law of electrostatics, Coulomb neither defined electric charge nor gave reliable measurements of the force–distance relation. Yet the experiment has often been viewed as the basis of the fundamental law of electrostatics. This paper discusses Coulomb's life, showing the context within which he was working, how he arrived at the experiment, and the use he made of it. Physics in France in the late 18th century was undergoing a transformation from a science of holistic observation and explanations to one of universal laws and exact measurement. Coulomb was both a subject of, and an important contributor to, this change, and these two aspects are evident in his approach to the experiment and to the later uptake of his results. The reaction in the rest of Europe was initially less favourable, and the ultimate fame of Coulomb's experiment was dependent on the triumph of French mathematical physics in the 19th century.

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