# Problem: According to Coulomb's Law, which pair of charged particles has the lowest potential energy?a. a particle with a 1– charge separated by 150 pm from a particle with a 2+ chargeb. a particle with a 1– charge separated by 150 pm from a particle with a 1+ chargec. a particle with a 1– charge separated by 100 pm from a particle with a 3+ charge

###### FREE Expert Solution

The potential energy of two charges interacting is given by Coulomb's Law. This states that energy is related to the charges and the distance between them where

$\overline{){\mathbf{E\alpha }}\frac{{\mathbf{q}}_{\mathbf{1}}{\mathbf{q}}_{\mathbf{2}}}{\mathbf{\epsilon r}}}$

q1 and q2 are the charges of the ions

r is the distance between charges

ε is the dielectric constant which for vacuum (gas phase) is simply equal to one

###### Problem Details

According to Coulomb's Law, which pair of charged particles has the lowest potential energy?
a. a particle with a 1– charge separated by 150 pm from a particle with a 2+ charge
b. a particle with a 1– charge separated by 150 pm from a particle with a 1+ charge
c. a particle with a 1– charge separated by 100 pm from a particle with a 3+ charge