Question

A researcher is analyzing data from a high-energy particle collision. the result of the analysis gives a value of 8.8 x 10-19 c ± 0.1 x 10-19 c for the charge of one of the emitted particles. should the researcher accept the value?

Answer 1

Elementary charge used to determine charges of other objects is equal to a charge of electron or proton. It's value is roughly $1.6* 10^{-19} C$. All other charges are whole-number multipliers of this elementary charge, meaning that we multiply elementary charge by {...,-2,-1,0,1,2,...}.

To find out if the measured charge can be accepted we need to divide it with elementary charge to see if we get whole number as result.
There are three possible values of measured charge: $8.7* 10^{-19} C\\ 8.8* 10^{-19} C \\ 8.9* 10^{-19} C$

$N_{1} = \frac{8.7* 10^{-19} C }{1.6* 10^{-19} C } =5.44 \\ N_{2} = \frac{8.8* 10^{-19} C }{1.6* 10^{-19} C } =5.5 \\ N_{3} = \frac{8.9* 10^{-19} C }{1.6* 10^{-19} C } =5.56$

As we can see none of the possible values of a measured charge is whole-number multiplier of elementary charge so the researcher should not accept the value.
This charge can be achieved by using quarks which have value of 1/3 of elementary charge but they do not remain stable for long enough.