Question

As a laudably skeptical physics student, you want to test Coulomb's law. For this purpose, you set up a measurement in which a proton and an electron are situated 971 nm from each other and you study the forces that the particles exert on each other. As expected, the predictions of Coulomb's law are well confirmed.

You find that the forces are attractive and the magnitude of each force is:______

Answer 1

The magnitude of each force is 2.45 x 10⁻¹⁶ N

Step-by-step explanation:

The charge of proton, +q = 1.603 x 10⁻¹⁹ C

The charge of electron, -q = 1.603 x 10⁻¹⁹ C

Distance between the two charges, r = 971 nm = 971 x 10⁻⁹ m

Apply Coulomb's law;

`F = (kq_1q_2)/(r^2)`

where;

k is Coulomb's constant = 8.99 x 10⁹ Nm²/C²

q₁ and q₂ are the charges of proton and electron respectively

F is the magnitude of force between them

Substitute in the given values and solve for F

`F = ((8.99*10^9)(1.603*10^(-19))^2)/((971*10^(-9))^2) \\\\F = 2.45*10^(-16) \ N`

Therefore, the magnitude of each force is 2.45 x 10⁻¹⁶ N