But gravitational force has only one sign (always attractive), while
Rationalised 2023-24
Electric Charges
and Fields
41
Coulomb force can be of both signs (attractive and repulsive), allowing
possibility of cancellation of electric forces This is how gravity, despite
being a much weaker force, can be a dominating and more pervasive
force in nature 3 The constant of proportionality k in Coulomb’s law is a matter of
choice if the unit of charge is to be defined using Coulomb’s law