# Homework Help: Nuclear physics question

1. Apr 19, 2005

### endeavour

The question is in the attachment..

My thoughts were that between 2 protons, there's obviously going to be higher electrostatic repulsion, so a higher attractive strong force is needed (to keep the protons together), than with 2 nucleons. But the highest strong force is when separation is low, but that's also when the electrostatic repuslion would be great?

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2. Apr 19, 2005

### OlderDan

The question is asking about the equilibrium separation. Suppose you had two neutrons in equlibrium (separation $$\displaystyle{x_0}$$), and you could change them into protons. What would happen?

The strong force is called the strong force because it really is strong- way stronger than the electrostatic force. If I am reading the graph correctly, it represents force in units of kiloNewtons as a function of separation. What would the force between two protons be if separted by $$x_0$$? That is a number you can work out.