7.6 Exercise 12

The probability of fusion occurring is greatly enhanced when appropriate nuclei are brought close together, but mutual Coulomb repulsion must be overcome. This can be done using the kinetic energy of high-temperature gas ions or by accelerating the nuclei toward one another. (a) Calculate the potential energy of two singly charged nuclei separated by $1.00 \times 10^{−12} \text{m} .$ (b) At what temperature will atoms of a gas have an average kinetic energy equal to this needed electrical potential energy?