In 1909, Robert Millikan performed an experiment involving tiny, charged drops of oil. The drops were charged because they had picked up extra electrons. Millikan was able to measure the charge on each drop in coulombs. Here is an example of what his data may have looked like.
Drop Charge (C)
A 3.20\times 10^{-19}
B 4.80\times 10^{-19}
C 8.00\times 10^{-19}
D 9.60\times 10^{-19}
Based on the given data, how many extra electrons did drop C contain?
answer: 5 electrons
What's the charge on the electron? I think 1.6 x 10^-19
So 8 x 10^-19/1.6 x 10^-19 = ??
To determine the number of extra electrons contained in drop C, we can use the fundamental charge of an electron. The charge (q) on an electron is approximately -1.6 × 10^-19 C.
Using this information, we can calculate the number of extra electrons in drop C by dividing its charge by the charge of an electron:
Number of extra electrons = Charge / Charge of an electron
Given that the charge of drop C is 8.00 × 10^-19 C, we can substitute these values into the equation:
Number of extra electrons = 8.00 × 10^-19 C / -1.6 × 10^-19 C
Simplifying this expression, we get:
Number of extra electrons = -5
Therefore, drop C contains 5 extra electrons.
To determine the number of extra electrons contained in drop C, we need to know the elementary charge, which represents the charge of a single electron.
The elementary charge (e) is approximately equal to 1.6 × 10^(-19) coulombs.
To find the number of extra electrons in drop C, we can divide the charge of drop C by the elementary charge:
Number of extra electrons = Charge of drop C / Elementary charge
Number of extra electrons in drop C = (8.00 × 10^(-19) C) / (1.6 × 10^(-19) C)
Performing the division, we get:
Number of extra electrons in drop C = 5
Therefore, drop C contained 5 extra electrons.