The Laws of Repulsion [PhET]

Coulomb's Law always threw my classroom game off a bit. I didn't have the apparatus, time, temperament, or desire to attempt to do a real hands-on deep dive lab. But I bristled at just delivering it under the hand-waving practice know as ICBS (It Can Be Shown ... and also ... I see BS).

I settled on a dry lab that would reveal Coulomb's Law through numerical patterns in an essentially empirical process. A paper, pencil, and preso PhyzSpringboard that was ... good enough.

In the meantime, PhET's Gravity Force Lab sim drew me into its lair of pattern-finding for universal gravitation, which compelled me to write an activity I called The Laws of Attraction (not to be confused with the 2004 Pierce Brosnan/Julianne Moore romcom of the same name).

When PhET's Coulomb's Law sim popped up on my radar, it seemed fitting to reboot The Laws of Attraction for electrostatic forces between point charges. The title of the activity reflects this heritage while incorporating something electrostatic force does that gravitational force does not. In all, a more deeply engaging activity that still avoids the practical pitfalls of delicate torsion pendulums, etc.. 

The Laws of Repulsion [PhET] at Teachers Pay Teachers