Interaction Potential Energy
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Interaction Potential Energy
I know Lavelle said something in class about this but I wasn't fast enough to write it down. So in terms of the Interaction potential energy equation that he gave us (the one that has the divided by r^6), why is the potential energy always negative?
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Re: Interaction Potential Energy
potential energy is always negative because the force is pulling to objects together. If it was a force pushing the two atoms apart, it would be positive.
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Re: Interaction Potential Energy
Another way to think about it is that energy input is required to break interactions/bonds. Therefore, a positive energy input is required to overcome/cancel out the negative potential energy that an interaction has.
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