Two small charged objects attract each other with a force F when separated by a distance d. If the charge on each object is reduced to one-fourth of its original value and the distance between them is reduced to d/2 the force becomes:

Explanation

According to Coulomb's Law, the force F between two point charges is given by the formula: F = k * (q1 * q2) / d^2, where k is the electrostatic constant, q1 and q2 are the magnitudes of the charges, and d is the distance between them. In this scenario, the charges are reduced to one-fourth of their original values, so we can write this as:F' = k * ((q1/4) * (q2/4)) / (d/2)^2Now simplifying this gives:F' = k * (q1 * q2) / (16 * (d^2/4)) = k * (q1 * q2) / (4 * d^2)This means that the new force F' is F/4. Therefore, option C is correct. The other options miscalculate the force due to incorrect consideration of both charge reduction and distance reduction.