1. The force exerted by stationary objects that are bearing an electric charge on other stationary objects bearing an electric charge.

If the charges are of the same sign, then the force is repulsive; if they are of opposite signs, the force is attractive.

The strength of the force is described by Coulomb's law or a law that was formulated by Charles Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806), French physicist, which describes the electric forces between charged objects.

The law states that:

• like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other,
• the attraction or repulsion acts along the line between the two charges,
• the size of the force varies inversely as the square of the distance between the two charges,
• the size of the force is proportional to the value of each charge.

2. A force resulting from the attraction of stationary, charged bodies, proportional to the product of their magnitudes and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
3. A force on a charged particle resulting from an electrostatic field, equal to the electric field vector times the charge of the particle.
4. Like charges in close proximity produce forces of repulsion between them; consequently, if two surfaces bear appreciable and approximately equal densities of charged groups on their surfaces appreciable forces of repulsion may occur between them.

The range of these forces is determined primarily by the ionic strength of the intervening medium, forces being of minimal range at high ionic strength.

The forces are effective over approximately twice the double layer of their thickness.