Separation and Potential/Kinetic Energy

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The discussion revolves around calculating the separation distance between two protons when they momentarily stop after being hurled towards each other with an initial kinetic energy of 0.19 MeV each. The conservation of energy principle is applied, assuming potential energy is negligible at a large distance. The user initially struggled with the calculation but realized the mistake was not accounting for the total kinetic energy of both protons, which should be doubled. After correcting this, the user successfully found the correct separation distance. The conversation highlights the importance of careful consideration of energy contributions in physics problems.
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Homework Statement


Two protons that are very far apart are hurled straight at each other, each with an initial kinetic energy of 0.19 MeV, where 1 mega electron volt is equal to 1106 (1.610-19) joules. What is the separation of the protons from each other when they momentarily come to a stop?

Homework Equations


Total energy = kinetic energy + potential energy
(1/4 pi e0)*(q1q2/r)

The Attempt at a Solution


So since the initial distance is very far away, we can assume that potential energy is so close to zero that it can be neglected. Therefore, due to the law of conservation of energy, when the kinetic energy is 0, the potential energy will be 0.19 MeV, or 3.044135274e-14 J. I tried setting this equal to the equation (1/4 pi e0)*(q1q2/r) and solving for r, but my answer is incorrect. Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!
 
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If this where the Physics Psychics Forum, somebody might be able to tell you what you did wrong. Why don't you tell us what you got and what numbers you put in? There is nothing wrong with your approach.
 
Its okay I ended up getting it right. I simply did not multiply the 0.19 MeV by 2
 

Thread 'Errors and significant figures'

I multiplied the values first without the error limit. Got 19.38. rounded it off to 2 significant figures since the given data has 2 significant figures. So = 19. For error I used the above formula. It comes out about 1.48. Now my question is. Should I write the answer as 19±1.5 (rounding 1.48 to 2 significant figures) OR should I write it as 19±1. So in short, should the error have same number of significant figures as the mean value or should it have the same number of decimal places as...
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