Two particles with charges +6e and -6e are initially very far apart (effectively an infinite distance apart). They are then fixed at positions that are 6.52 x 10-12 m apart.

Question

Two particles with charges +6e and -6e are initially very far apart (effectively an infinite distance apart). They are then fixed at positions that are 6.52 x 10^-12 m apart. What is EPE_final - EPE_initial, which is the change in the electric potential energy?

Answer 1

recall that the electric potential between two Particles can be given by EP =( kq_1*q_2)/r where k is Coulomb’s constant, q_1 and q_2 are the charges of the particles and r is the distance between the particles. Notice that initially the distance is infinite so the electric potential is zero. We have all the information needed to find the final electric potential. Once calculated, simply take the difference between the final and initial electric potential and hence we are done.

hope this was useful.