Draw a graph showing the variation of the potential energy of a pair of nucleons- as a function……………………

Question :Draw a graph showing the variation of the potential energy of a pair of nucleons- as a function of their separation. Indie is the region in which the nuclear force is (a) attractive and (b) repulsive.

The correct answer is -Here is a rough sketch of the potential energy graph for a pair of nucleons as a function of their separation:

In the graph, the potential energy is shown on the y-axis, and the separation distance between the nucleons is shown on the x-axis. The region in which the nuclear force is attractive is on the left side of the graph, where the potential energy is negative. The region in which the nuclear force is repulsive is on the right side of the graph, where the potential energy is positive.

The attractive region occurs because the strong nuclear force between nucleons is attractive at short distances, overcoming the electromagnetic repulsion between protons. This attractive force reaches a maximum at a certain separation distance, after which the force becomes repulsive due to the Pauli exclusion principle.

The repulsive region occurs because the nucleons are too far apart for the strong nuclear force to act effectively, and the electromagnetic repulsion between the protons dominates.

Note that the shape of the curve and the precise locations of the attractive and repulsive regions depend on the details of the strong nuclear force and the properties of the nucleons. The sketch above is a simplified representation.