(c) Does the potential energy of the two particles increase or decrease when the distance is increased to 1.0 nm?

Video transcript

Hi everyone for this problem, we asked does increasing the distance between two electrons by 2. nanometers increase or decrease the potential energy. So we want to know what's going on with our potential energy when the distance is increased. So let's write out our potential energy equation. That is our potential energy is equal to K times Q one times Q two over are all right. So the two variables that we're paying attention to here are our potential energy and our variable R. And the problem tells us that the distance is being increased. So let's make a note here. Our distance is increasing. So if we take a look, we see we have an inverse relationship between potential energy and distance. And so if our distance is increasing, that means our potential energy is going to decrease. And that is the answer to this problem. Our potential energy is going to decrease as the separation between the two leg charges increases. Okay, that is the answer to this problem. I hope this was helpful.