Question

Use Coulomb's law to calculate the ionization energy in kJ/mol of an atom composed of a proton and an electron separated by 256.00pm.

Answer 1

For one particular atom, the potential energy is
\[U = \frac{e^2}{4\pi\epsilon_0 R} \]
So for a mole of atoms,
\[U_{total} = \frac{N_A e^2}{4\pi\epsilon_0 R} \]
where N_A is Avogadro's number. I calculate
\[U_{total} \approx 2.39 \space kJ\]

Answer 2

oops, make that 239