Question:

If you chafe a rubber rod with rabbit fur thus giving the rod a negative charge and bring the rod near a few bits of neutral paper the rod will attract the bits of paper. Though they stay on neutral the bits of paper do become polarized and the end of a bit of paper closer to the rod turns into positive while the end farther from the rod becomes negative. Specified that the amount of negative charge on one end of the bit of paper is equal to the amount of positive on the other end it might seem that the negatively charged rubber rod would repeal the negative end of the bit of paper with just as much force as that with which it attracts the positive end. Why subsequently is there a net attractive force on the bit of paper?

Answer:

As-per to the Coulomb's Law distance matters. It's to facilitate square of the separation of the DENOMINATOR that communicates this fact to us in the mathematical expression of Coulomb's Law. The superior the separation the weaker the force. Consequently the closer positive end of the bit of paper is attracted more strongly than the more distant negative end even though each end has the same amount of charge as the other.