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- Aug 17, 2009
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OK I just don't get how conservation of energy is supposed to work with charges.
Imagine 2 positive charges being held very close together; they will have a lot of potential energy. When they get released, ΔPE +ΔKE=0. What I don't understand is that, according to that equation, as they move further apart, potential energy of each will decrease, so to conserve energy velocity will increase. But obviously this is wrong or their speed would increase forever as they move apart, which common sense tells us is wrong. Can anyone explain to me what I'm missing?
Imagine 2 positive charges being held very close together; they will have a lot of potential energy. When they get released, ΔPE +ΔKE=0. What I don't understand is that, according to that equation, as they move further apart, potential energy of each will decrease, so to conserve energy velocity will increase. But obviously this is wrong or their speed would increase forever as they move apart, which common sense tells us is wrong. Can anyone explain to me what I'm missing?
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