Why do unlike charges attract each other?

Answer 1

"Hold on...did you say like charges repel and unlike charges attract?" Yes, but this is really due to a different force, the electromagnetic force, which we will talk about at a different door. Even so, we will introduce this by an example. Hopefully you'll be familiar with this example. Have you ever put two magnets together and instead of coming together, they had to be pushed together? Magnets are composed of north poles and south poles. One can think of a north pole as being a positive charge and a south pole as a negative charge. North poles attract south poles like positive charges attract negative charges. Furthermore, like poles repel as like charges repel. But, there is a difference; you can never get a magnet with just a north pole or just a south pole. Even if the magnet is broken up into many tiny pieces, EVERY piece will have a north pole and a south pole. When two like poles are pushed together, they usually flip over so that the north pole and south pole come together. Now you have observed two facts at the same time; like poles repel (like "charges" repel) and unlike poles (unlike "charges") attract. Go ahead, take a bite out this new knowledge and experiment yourself. Try playing with the repelling and attracting properties of poles ("charges") with some magnets!