what is the force on one charge do to multiple charges?

Question

If you are given a table with multiple charges and radii components (x, y, z), how do you find the force on charge one due to the other charges?

I find a vector by taking it's head minus tail correct? I have positions of charges, do I take the difference of those positions as vectors?

Answer 1

Just add the force vectors. The key word here is "vectors"

Answer 2

Force of electrostaic interaction from i-th charge:
Fi = q Qi / Ri²,
or in vector form
|Fi> = - (q Qi / Ri³) |Ri>,
where Ri = √(x² + y² + z²).

You need to calculate for each charge,
Qi/Ri³ = Qi/√(x² + y² + z²)³
then all x,y,z components of |Fi>,
and then add them all together.

Writing a simple computer program is probably
the best approach.

Answer 3

Luckily due to the law of superpostion you can just add the combination of forces to get a resultant force