Walker, Halliday & Resnick — Coulomb's Law: Problem 34

34 Figure 21-23 shows an arrangement of four charged particles, with angle \(\theta = 35.0^\circ\) and distance \(d = 2.00\text{ cm}\). Particle 2 has charge \(q_2 = 8.00 \times 10^{-19}\text{ C}\); particles 3 and 4 have charges \(q_3 = q_4 = -1.60 \times 10^{-19}\text{ C}\). (a) What is distance \(D\) between the origin and particle 2 if the net electrostatic force on particle 1 due to the other particles is zero? (b) If particles 3 and 4 were moved closer to the x axis but maintained their symmetry about that axis, would the required value of \(D\) be greater than, less than, or the same as in part (a)?