Lets assume two Leyden Jars are charged. As they now have the same charge on the outside, when I bring them next to each other, do they repel? Or, is the electrostatic force just too weak in that case?
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2 Answers
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Think of a charged parallel plate capacitor.
The charge is resident on the “inner” sides of the plates so “looking” from outside there is no charge on the “outer” sides of the plates.
Thus there would be no electrostatic forces between the capacitors.
Indeed the outside of Leyden jars are usually earthed so there will be no electrostatic forces.
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It will depend on the orientation and geometry of the Leyden jars, their interaction may even be attractive.
Inspecting the Wikipedia of Leyden jars we can see that it can be constructed from a wide variety of materials and can have quite complex geometries. However a Leyden jar always carries a charge distribution which is net neutral. As there is zero net charge the capacitors do not carry a monopole field, and they will not feel an inverse square repulsion as correctly noted by Farcher. This was likely the repulsive interaction you had in mind with your question.
However, as there is a separation of charges both jars will carry a significant dipole moment and depending on their relative orientation the two dipoles will either attract or repel. As Leyden jars can be highly charged this interaction force should be measurable and may even be relevant in some settings.
