Two positively charged particles are first brought close together...

Question

Two positively charged particles are first brought close together
and then released. Once released, the repulsion between
particles causes them to move away from each other.
(b) Does the potential energy of
the two particles prior to release increase or decrease as the
distance between them is increased.

Accepted Answer

Welcome back everyone in this example, we have two positively charged particles brought together and then released. We're told that when the particles are released a repulsion between them leads them to migrate apart. Thus the distance between the two particles affect the potential energy of the particles before their release. So let's make note of what the prompt mentions were told that as D. For distance increases, the electrostatic force of repulsion which we would represent as F. Sub E. L. For the force of the electro electric repulsion decreases. And that is due to the fact that these positively charged particles are farther apart so they're not going to be repelled from one another as strongly. So that's why the electrostatic force decreases. And because this force decreases their potential energy to act in this force is also going to decrease. So we would say potential energy also decreases. And so based on what we've outlined, we can see that we have an inverse relationship where we can recall columns law which states that our electrostatic force is equal to our columns constant. K. Multiplied by the charges of our objects, which would be Q one times Q two. So Q one is our first charge, and Q two is our charge of our second object, which is then divided by the radius squared, which would represent the distance of our charges. And we can see that because distance is in the denominator. So just to be detailed here, this represents the distance between our charges and then F. E. S. Is our electrostatic force. So because distance is in the denominator here, an electrostatic force is in the numerator. We can see that we definitely have an inverse relationship. We can say that electrostatic force is inversely related to the distance between the charges and that should be in a fraction. So we can confirm that the correct choice to complete this example is going to be C. Which highlights this inverse relationship because the potential energy will increase as the distance before release of the particles decreases. In other words, if our particles are closer to one another, their potential to act in the repulsive force is going to be increased, which is why the potential energy increases. So see as our final answer, I hope everything I reviewed was clear. If you have any questions, leave them down below and I'll see everyone in the next practice video.

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