Puzzle - determine the charges

Determine the value of the left charge and set it here
-5 nC +5 nC
0
Determine the value of the right charge and set it here
-5 nC +5 nC
0
Plot on the vertical axis:

In this simulation, the two charged particles (in green) are each randomly assigned a sign and a magnitude that is either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 nC. Your goal is to determine their charges, with the help of the graphs - when you have figured out what they are, set the charge sliders to those values and check your answer.

You can click-and-drag the particles to move them left or right. The particle on the left is confined to the region to the left of the origin; the particle on the right is confined to the region to the right of the origin. In this simulation, you can see the graph of the electric field on the x-axis as a function of position, as well as the electric potential on the x-axis as a function of position. On the graph, the electric field is shown as positive if the net field at that position is directed to the right, and the field is shown as negative if the field is directed left. Using the sliders, you can adjust the charges of the particles.

Simulation first posted on 3-3-2016. Written by Andrew Duffy

Creative Commons License
This work by Andrew Duffy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This simulation can be found in the collection at http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/classroom.html.

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