Question

What is the change in potential energy if the distance separating the electron and proton is increased to 1.0 nm?

Answer 1

Answer:

$Ep=-2.3*10^{-19}J$

Explanation:

The change in potential energy can be expressed as:

$Ep=K.\frac{q1.q2}{r}$

where K is a constant with a value of $9*10^{9}\frac{N.m^{2}}{C^{2}}$, q1 and q2 are the charges of the proton and the electron and r is the distance between them.

The charge for the proton is $+1.6*10^{-19}C$ and the charge for the electron is $-1.6*10^{-19}C$.

Converting r=1.0nm to m:

$1.0nm*\frac{1*10^{-9}m}{1.0nm}=1*10^{-9}m$

Replacing values:

$Ep=9*10^{9}\frac{N.m^{2}}{C^{2}}.\frac{(+1.6*10^{-19}C).(-1.6*10^{-19}C)}{1*10^{-9}m}$

$Ep=-2.3*10^{-19}J$