A particle of charge q is kept in a fixed position at a point P and a second particle of mass m, having the same charge q, is initially held at rest a distance from P. The second particle is then released and is repelled from the first one. We have to determine its speed at the instant it is a distance from P. Let , , , and .

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It is given that a particle of charge q is kept in a fixed position at a point P. A second particle of mass m, having the same charge q, is initially held at rest a distance from P. In this situation the total energy of the two particle system is

.

The second particle is then released and is repelled from the first one. When the second particle is at a distance from P its speed v can be determined from the equation

Data of the problem are

,

,

, and .

And