An electric field exits inside a fluorescent tube of diameter 3.00cm. In one second, 2.00x10^18 electrons and 0.50x10^18 positive ions pass through a certain cross section. What is the current in the tube?
Ions is not specific enough? what is the charge on the ions?
-e and +e respectively
To find the current in the tube, we need to calculate the total charge passing through the cross-section per second.
The electric charge of an electron is -1.6x10^-19 Coulombs, and the charge of a positive ion is +1.6x10^-19 Coulombs (assuming the ions have only a single elementary charge).
Given that 2.00x10^18 electrons and 0.50x10^18 positive ions pass through the cross-section per second, we can calculate the total charge as follows:
Total charge = (Number of electrons x charge of an electron) + (Number of positive ions x charge of a positive ion)
Total charge = (2.00x10^18 electrons) x (-1.6x10^-19 C) + (0.50x10^18 positive ions) x (+1.6x10^-19 C)
Simplifying this expression, we get:
Total charge = -3.2x10^-1 C + 8.0x10^-1 C
Total charge = 4.8x10^-1 C
The current (I) can be calculated using the formula:
I = Total charge / Time
Since the total charge passing through the cross-section per second is 4.8x10^-1 C, and the time is 1 second, the current (I) can be calculated as:
I = 4.8x10^-1 C / 1 s
Therefore, the current in the tube is 4.8x10^-1 Amperes (A).