Question

(a) Can the centre of charge of a two-charge system be outside the line segment joining the charges?

Answer 1

Of course, the center of charge of a two-charge system lies outside the line segment joining the charges.

Explanation:

• If we consider a charge located at the origin of an x-axis and a second charge is located at a distance d from the origin along the x-axis, then the location of the centre of charge can be written as $x=2 d$ where the center of charge is at a distance 2d from the origin along the x-axis.  
• Hence, the center of the charging system cannot lie in between the line joining the two charges.