Coulombische

Coulombische is the German adjective used to describe phenomena, quantities, or interactions that relate to Coulomb’s law, the fundamental description of electrostatic forces between electric charges. The term is derived from the work of Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, a French physicist whose inverse-square law laid the groundwork for classical electrostatics.

Coulomb's law states that the magnitude of the electrostatic force between two point charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of their separation. In vacuum, the force is F = (1/(4π ε0)) (q1 q2 / r^2), where ε0 is the vacuum permittivity. The corresponding potential energy is V(r) = (1/(4π ε0)) (q1 q2 / r). In a medium, the interaction is reduced by the relative permittivity εr, giving F = (1/(4π ε0 εr)) (q1 q2 / r^2). The term Coulombische Kraft or Coulombische Interaktion is frequently used in this context.

Applications of Coulombische interactions span electrostatics in atoms and molecules, ionic bonding, colloidal and dielectric systems, and plasma physics. They form the basis for understanding chemical bonding, charge screening, and many computational models that describe electrostatic potentials and forces in complex materials.

Limitations and scope are important: Coulombische concepts apply to stationary or slowly moving charges within a classical framework. At high velocities, quantum and relativistic effects become significant, and more complete theories such as quantum electrodynamics are required. In real materials, dielectric screening and polarization modify the bare interaction, and effective Coulombic forces must be used to describe observed behavior.