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Find the electrical force between a proton and an electron placed .0440 mm apart.

User Faheemkodi
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Final answer:

To find the electrical force between a proton and an electron separated by 0.0440 mm, use Coulomb's law with the charge values of the particles and the converted distance in meters.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks to find the electrical force between a proton and an electron when they are separated by a distance of 0.0440 millimeters (mm). To find this force, we need to use Coulomb's law, which is:

F = k * |q1 * q2| / r^2

where:

  • F is the electrical force,
  • k is Coulomb's constant (8.9875 × 10^9 N·m^2/C^2),
  • q1 and q2 are the charges of the proton and electron respectively (1.602 × 10^-19 C, but one is positive and the other is negative), and
  • r is the separation distance in meters.

Since an electron and a proton have the same magnitude of charge but are opposite in sign, the product |q1 * q2| will simply be the square of the electron's charge. The separation distance needs to be converted from millimeters to meters (0.0440 mm = 0.0440 × 10^-3 m). Plugging in the values:

F = (8.9875 × 10^9) * (1.602 × 10^-19)^2 / (0.0440 × 10^-3)^2

Upon calculating this, you will find the magnitude of the electrical force between the proton and electron.

User Novelette
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