A chemist in an imaginary universe, where electrons have a differ...

Question

A chemist in an imaginary universe, where electrons have a different
charge than they do in our universe, performs the Millikan
oil drop experiment to measure the electron's charge. The
charges of several drops are recorded here. What is the charge of
the electron in this imaginary universe?
Drop # Charge
A -6.9 * 10 - 19 C
B -9.2 * 10 - 19 C
C -11.5 * 10 - 19 C
D -4.6 * 10 - 19 C

Accepted Answer

Hello everyone today. We are being given the following problem. Think about a hypothetical universe in which an electron has a different charge. The charge of an electron was was measured using the Millikan oil drop experiment. The data collected as shown below, calculate the charge of the electron. And so we have our drops are experiments and then we have our charges. So what we need to do is we need to divide all of our larger charges by the smallest charge. So we're going to have our drop one to drop to ratio and dropped to is going to be the smallest one. So we're gonna be dividing by drop to for all of these. So drop one we have our negative 1.8 times 10 to the negative 18th. Cool. Um divided by charge for drop two which is negative 1.8 times 10 to the negative 18 columns. This is going to give us 1.67. We're then going to have our drop too to drop to ratio which if we notice they're both the same number. So it's just gonna be equal to one. Then we will have our Drop 3 2. Drop two. Drop threes charge is negative 2.16 times 10 to the negative 18 And dropped two charges negative 1.08 times 10 to the -18 columns. This is gonna give us two. Then we have our drop four to drop t ratio. Job force charge is negative 1.44 times 10 to the negative 18 columns divided by charge to which is one negative 1.8 times 10 to the negative 18th. Cool. Um this is going to give us 1.33. So in order to get a whole number, we have to multiply each of these ratios that we found by a common factor And that common factor is going to be three. So we're gonna take our First ratio multiply that by three And this is gonna give us five, our second ratio. We're gonna multiply by three, that's gonna give us three. Our third ratio we multiplied by three we get six and if you multiply our last ratio by three we get four. And so what we need to do is we need to take our charges and divide that by our Whole ratios. So for one we're gonna say for drop one we're gonna take our negative 1.8 times 10 to the negative 18th columns. And we're going to divide that by the ratio which is five, that's gonna give us a negative 3.6 times 10 to the negative 19th columns for drop to we're gonna have our negative 1.8 times 10 to the negative 18th columns divided by its ratio which was three. This is going to give us a value of negative 3.6 times 10 to the negative 19th columns And the same will be done for job three. We'll have our negative 2.16 times 10 to negative 18th columns divide that by its ratio, which was six. This is gonna give us negative 3.6 times 10 to the negative 19th columns once again. And then lastly for drop four, we're going to have our negative 1.44 times 10 to the negative 18th columns, divided by its ratio, which was four. That's gonna give us negative 3.6 times 10 to the negative 19. Cool. Um So overall we can say that our charge is going to be negative 3.6 times 10 to the negative 19th. Cool. Um And with that we have solved the problem overall. I hope this helped. And until next time.

Watch next