Question

Given an electron and a proton aligned horizontally like this: - + and separated by a distance of 33 nm. In which direction will the electron accelerate?

Answer 1

Since the electron and proton are charged particles, they will experience a force due to their mutual Coulombic attraction. The direction of the force on each particle will be opposite to the direction of the other particle.

Since the electron is negatively charged and the proton is positively charged, the force on the electron will be in the direction of the proton (to the right), and the force on the proton will be in the direction of the electron (to the left).

Since the electron has a much smaller mass than the proton, it will experience a larger acceleration in response to the force. This means that the electron will accelerate to the right, in the direction of the proton.