Through the work of scientists in the late 18th century, the main features of the electrostatic force—the existence of two types of charge, the observation that like charges repel, unlike charges attract, and the decrease of force with distance—were eventually refined, and expressed as a mathematical formula. The mathematical formula for the electrostatic force is called Coulomb's law after the French physicist Charles Coulomb (1736–1806), who performed experiments and first proposed a formula to calculate it.
Modern experiments have verified Coulomb's law to great precision. For example, it has been shown that the force is inversely proportional to distance between two objects squared (F∝1/r2) to an accuracy of 1 part in 1016. No exceptions have ever been found, even at the small distances within the atom.
Coulomb's law holds even within the atoms, correctly describing the force between the positively charged nucleus and each of the negatively charged electrons. This simple law also correctly accounts for the forces that bind atoms together to form molecules and for the forces that bind atoms and molecules together to form solids and liquids.
Generally, as the distance between ions increases, the energy of attraction approaches zero and ionic bonding is less favorable. As the magnitude of opposing charges increases, energy increases and ionic bonding is more favorable.
An electric field is a vector field which associates to each point of the space the Coulomb force that will experience a test unity charge. Given the electric field, the strength and direction of a force F on a quantity charge q in an electric field E is determined by the electric field. For a positive charge, the direction of the electric field points along lines directed radially away from the location of the point charge, while the direction is towards for a negative charge.
This distribution around a charged molecule is spherical in nature, and creates a sort of electrostatic "cloud" around the molecule. The attraction or repulsion forces within the spherical distribution of charge is stronger closer to the molecule, and becomes weaker as the distance from the molecule increases.
This image shows the outer electron cloud of a neutral water molecule. The charge distribution of the oxygen molecule is negative, and attracts the two positive hydrogen molecules. The attraction between the two opposing charges forms a neutral water molecule. It is a polar molecule because there is still a permanent charge separation because the electrons spend more time near the oxygen than the hydrogens.
Charge distribution in a water molecule
Schematic representation of the outer electron cloud of a neutral water molecule. The electrons spend more time near the oxygen than the hydrogens, giving a permanent charge separation as shown. Water is thus a polar molecule. It is more easily affected by electrostatic forces than molecules with uniform charge distributions.