How would you change the distance between two charged particles to increase the electric force between them by a factor of 16

Question

anonymous · Answer

Consider the formula for that force:$$F=\frac{ 1 }{ 4\pi \epsilon  }\frac{ q _{1}q _{2} }{ r ^{2} }$$where F is the force; 4πε is a constant; q1 is charge 1; q2 is charge 2; and r is the distance between those two charges.

Now, does the charge go up or down when the distance between the charge increases?  What about when it decreases?  What happens when you double the distance?  What happens when you halve the distance?  Finding those answers will lead you to the answer to your question.