An electric force is an attractive or repulsive force

between two charged objects. Electric forces are

attractive when two objects have opposite charges
and repulsive when two objects have like charges.
Electric forces are different from magnetic forces,
although the two are strongly related.
Static electric forces are relatively easy to observe in
action. For instance, conventional foam or packing
peanuts tend to stick to hands and other objects. This
is due to a charge in the surface of the peanut, which
is attracted to the opposite charges in hands or other
objects. Similarly, removing a wool hat can cause
hair to stand on end. As the hat rubs the hair, it picks
up an electrical charge; this also leaves each hair with
a charge. Because the hairs have like charges, they
try to move away from one another, and stand on
end.
Electric forces and magnetic forces are both
products of electric charges, but while electric forces
can be from static or moving charges, magnetic
forces only arise when a charged object is in motion.
Permanent magnets are possible in certain metals
because of the motions of electrons around the atoms
that compose them. Electric charges are caused by
the presence or absence of electrons and so moving
electrons around an atom actually produce a small
magnetic field.
The law of conservation of energy is one of the
basic laws of physics and therefore governs the
microscopic motion of individual atoms in a chemical
reaction.

Benjamin Franklin and Electricity

Franklin wrote up his thoughts on electricity in
several letters to a fellow scientist who lived in
London. This scientist and other scientists in London
thought Franklin's letters contained valuable
information, so in 1751 they published them in a little
book, Experiments and Observations on Electricity.

Coulomb's law states that: The magnitude of the

electrostatic force of interaction between two point
charges is directly proportional to the scalar

multiplication of the magnitudes of charges and

inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them.
Any two charged objects will create a force on each
other. Opposite charges will produce an attractive
force while similar charges will produce a repulsive
force. The greater the charges, the greater the
force. The greater the distance between them, the
smaller the force. For two spherically shaped charges
the formula would look like:
F the force on each charge, + indicates
repulsion, - indicates attraction
k the electrostatic
constant
q1 the quantity of charge 1 measured in
coulombs
q2 the quantity of charge 2 measured in
coulombs
r the radius of separation from center of
one charge to the center of the other.
The forces are force pairs of each other so they will
always be equal in size and opposite in direction.
Quantity of charge can be measured in either
elementary charges (an elementary charge is the
amount of charge on one electron or proton) or in
Coulombs. An elementary charge is a very tiny unit
of charge. Since it is so small it is not usually a
convenient unit to measure typical amounts of
charge. It would be similar to measuring distances
from one town to the next, in millimeters. On the
other hand, a coulomb is an incredibly large unit of
charge. It is actually too large a unit of charge for
talking about electrostatics (stationary charges) but it
is an appropriately sized unit as we begin describing
the quantity of charge moved in an electric
circuit. Unfortunately, we are stuck with either one
unit or the other. Here is a comparison of the two
units:

1Coulomb = 6.3x1018 elementary charges

-or1elementary charge = 1.6x10-19 Coulomb
If you use the electrostatic constant (k) given above
you will notice that it is given in terms of Coulombs
so that forces us to have to measure the quantities of
charge in Coulombs.
You should notice that the formula for Coulomb's
law is very similar to Newton's Universal Law of
Gravitation.

They both follow the inverse square law, meaning

they are both over r2.
They both have a constant that adjusts the units and
the amount to make it so the actual value of the force
agrees with the calculated value of the force.
One uses the product of the charges, the other uses
the product of the masses.

Charles De Coulomb- French engineer and physicist

Charles de Coulomb made pioneering discoveries in
electricity and magnetism, and came up with the
theory called Coulomb's Law.
Torsion balance, instrument used to measure small
forces. It is based on the principle that a wire or
thread resists twisting with a force that is
proportional to the stress. The torsion balance
consists essentially of a wire or thread attached at one
end and arranged in such a way that a force applied at
the other, or free, end tends to twist it out of shape.
The force is measured by the extent to which the wire
or thread is so twisted. Torsion balances are used to
measure small electric, magnetic, and gravitational
forces. One type is used to measure small weights.
The invention of the torsion balance is commonly
credited to the English geologist John Michell, who
made his instrument c.1750, and to the French
physicist Charles A. de Coulomb, who independently
devised such a balance c.1777.
Electrostatics is the study of forces between charges,
as described by Coulomb's Law. We develop the
concept of an electric field surrounding charges. We
work through examples of the electric field near a

line, and near a plane, and develop formal definitions

of both *electric potential* and *voltage*.
Electric field intensity
The strength of the electric field is measured using a
quantity called the electric field intensity. The greater
the electrical field intensity the stronger the field.
The electrical field intensity (EE) is defined as:
The electric field intensity is the force on a unit
positive charge placed at that point in the field.
In a uniform field the electric field intensity is
constant (the same at any point in the field) while in a
radial field the electric field intensity decreases as the
distance from the central charge increases.
Therefore for a radial field the electric field intensity
distance d from a positive charge of size Q coulombs
is:
Radial field: EE = (1/4o)Q/d2
For a uniform field between two parallel plates
separated by a distance d and with a potential
difference V between them the field is:
Uniform field: EE = V/d
the units for electric field intensity are Newtons per
coulomb (NC-1).

REFERENCES:
https://www.reference.com/science/electrical-forced1a7c39830a63b2f
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/tuckerman/adv.chem/lect
ures/lecture_2/node4.html
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/franklinb/aa_fran
klinb_electric_3.html
http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/physics/phys03/a
coulomb/default.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/tors
ion-balance.html
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electricalengineering/ee-electrostatics
http://www.schoolphysics.co.uk/age1619/Electricity%20and%20magnetism/Electrostatics/t
ext/Electric_field_intensity/index.html