Electrical Engineering ⇒ Topic : Importance of vector form

Importance of vector form. The reader may wonder about the utility of Coulomb's law in vector form over the scalar form. The answer will be readily available from the following discussion

(1) The vector form shows at a glance that forces are equal and opposite.

That is F₂₁ equal in magnitude to F₁₂ but opposite in direction. The scalar form does not show this fact. This is a distinct advantage over the scalar form.

(2)                       

This means that act along the same line i.e. along the line joining charges Q₁ and Q₂. In other words, the electrostatic force between two charges is a central force i. e. it acts along the line joining the centres of the two charges. However, scalar form does not show such a nature of electrostatic force between two charges.