Consider four protons at rest at the corners of a square. The protons are bound together so they cannot move. Then the bonds holding one of the protons break so that proton is free to move. Determine that proton\'s acceleration (both direction and magnitude) at the instant after it is no longer bound as well as its speed when it has moved far away. You know the proton\'s charge, its mass, and the length of the sides of the square. Solution Here we need to note that the like charges repel each other, hence the proton will be pushed away along the diagonal of the square. We will assume that the mass of the proton is Mp and charge is q while the length of the side of the square is a. The net force due to the proton diagonally opposite would be along the diagonal, and also due to the other two charges. Hence the net force would be: 2kq22/a2 + kq2/2a2 = (kq2/a2)[22 + 1/2] along the diagonal. The acceleration would be given as: Force / mass = (kq2/Mpa2)[22 + 1/2] So as to determine the speed of the proton once it gets far away, we will use the prinicple of conservation of energy. Hence the initial potential energy of the proton would be equal to its final kinetic energy hence giving us the speed. That is. 2kq2/a + kq2/a2 = (kq2/a)[2 + 1/2] = Mpv2/2 or, V = sqrt[(2kq2/Mpa)[2 + 1/2]] which is the required expression for the speed of the proton..