Abstract: | We use an electrostatic model to study the average kinetic energy of ions ejected from the pure Coulomb explosions of methane clusters (CA4)n (light atom A=H and D). It is found that the ratio of the average kinetic energy of the ions to their initial average electrostatic potential energy is irrelevant to the cluster size. This finding implies that as long as the ratio is given, the average kinetic energies of the ions can be simply estimated from their initial average electrostatic potential energies, rather than from the time- consuming simulations. The ratios for the different charge states of carbon ions are presented. |