An electron is traveling through a region of space in which the electric field is along the +x direction and has a magnitude of 1560 N/C. What is the acceleration of the electron?
acceleration = eE/m
e is the electron charge, m is the electron mass and E is the electric field
The answer should have a minus sign because an electron will accelerate in the -x direction, due to its negative charge. The natural constant "e" is always listed as a positive number.
To find the acceleration of the electron, we need to make use of Newton's second law of motion, which states that the net force acting on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration. In this case, the force acting on the electron is the electric force due to the electric field.
The electric force acting on a charged particle is given by the equation F = q * E, where F is the force, q is the charge of the particle, and E is the electric field. In this case, the electron has a charge of -1.6 x 10^-19 Coulombs (C) and the electric field is 1560 N/C in the +x direction.
Substituting these values into the equation, we have F = (-1.6 x 10^-19 C) * (1560 N/C). This gives us the force acting on the electron.
To find the acceleration, we need to rearrange Newton's second law equation: F = m * a, where m is the mass of the electron and a is the acceleration.
Since the mass of an electron is approximately 9.11 x 10^-31 kg, we can substitute it into the equation: F = (9.11 x 10^-31 kg) * a.
Now we can equate the two expressions for force: (-1.6 x 10^-19 C) * (1560 N/C) = (9.11 x 10^-31 kg) * a.
Solving for a, we divide both sides by (9.11 x 10^-31 kg): a = [(-1.6 x 10^-19 C) * (1560 N/C)] / (9.11 x 10^-31 kg)
Using this formula, we can calculate the acceleration of the electron.