When I see net electric field I think Enet = E1 + E2 ... En...The question that

Question

When I see net electric field I think Enet = E1 + E2 ... En...The question that was asked is: a proton and electron (assumed to be point charges) are separated by a distance of 1micrometer. What is the magnitude of the net electric field at the midpoint between the charges? Using E = kQ/r^2 where k = 9*10^9 Nm^2/C^2 and Q=1.602 * 10^-19 C i thought it was 0 because Q is negative for the electron and positive for the proton, but my teacher has it as Enet = 2*(ke/.5 * 10^-6) = 1.15*10^4 N/C...Why don't you account for the different charge? why is it that you just add two E1 and E2?

Explanation / Answer

the net electric field is given by the fact that the direction will be the same as that of the case if a negative charge is placed at that point

for the proton it will attract the negative charge so direction will be towards proton

for the electron it will repel the negative charge so direction will be away from electron that is the direction towards to proton

so both electric field point in the same direction hence they are added

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