What does the law of charges state?

• A. Opposite charges attract and like charges repel
• B. Like charges attract and opposite charges repel
• C. Charges cancel when near
• D. Charges are conserved in reactions

Answer: (A)

The essential idea tested is how electric charges interact: the force between charges depends on their signs. Opposite charges attract each other and like charges repel. This is the behavior described by Coulomb’s law, which says the force grows with the size of the charges and shrinks with the square of the distance between them, acting along the line joining the two charges. So a positive and a negative charge pull toward each other, while two positives or two negatives push apart.

The other statements don’t fit this interaction pattern. Charges don’t generally cancel each other out when they’re near; that would miss the directional attraction or repulsion. And charge conservation is a separate principle about how charge is preserved in reactions, not about the force between charges. Everyday observations, like a charged balloon sticking to or repelling from a wall or hair, reflect this attraction between opposite charges and repulsion between like charges.