If two identical charges are brought closer together, what happens to the potential energy of the system?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
If two identical charges are brought closer together, what happens to the potential energy of the system?
Increases
Decreases
Remains the same
Becomes zero
As the charges are brought closer, the potential energy of the system increases due to the repulsive force between like charges.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: If two identical charges are brought closer together, what happens to the potential energy of the system?
Solution: As the charges are brought closer, the potential energy of the system increases due to the repulsive force between like charges.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand that identical charges are charges that have the same type, either both positive or both negative.
Step 2: Recognize that like charges repel each other. This means that if you bring two identical charges closer together, they push against each other.
Step 3: Know that potential energy is the energy stored in a system due to its position. In this case, the position is determined by how close the charges are to each other.
Step 4: When the charges are far apart, the potential energy is lower because they are not exerting much force on each other.
Step 5: As you bring the charges closer together, the repulsive force increases, which means they are trying to push away from each other more strongly.
Step 6: Because of this increased repulsion, the potential energy of the system increases as the charges are brought closer together.
