Question

To analyze the experiment used to determine the properties of an electron. 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. Based on the given data, how many extra electrons did drop C contain? Express your answer as an integer.

Answer 1

The question is incomplete, here is the complete question:

To analyze the experiment used to determine the properties of an electron. 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 × 10⁻¹⁹

 B             -4.80 × 10⁻¹⁹

 C             -8.00 × 10⁻¹⁹

 D             -9.60 × 10⁻¹⁹

Based on the given data, how many extra electrons did drop C contain? Express your answer as an integer.

Answer: The extra electrons that the drop C contain are 5

Explanation:

Millikan’s oil drop experiment is used to measure the charge of an electron. Before this experiment, the subatomic particles were not accepted.

He found that all the oil drops had charges that were the multiples of $-1.6\times 10^{-19}C$. This value is the charge on 1 electron

Number of electrons excess electrons is calculated by using the formula:

$\text{Excess electrons}=\frac{\text{Charge on millikan's oil drop}}{\text{Charge on 1 electron}}$

For Drop C:

Charge on drop C = $-8.00\times 10^{-19}C$

$\text{Excess electrons}=\frac{-8.00\times 10^{-19}}{-1.6\times 10^{-19}}=5$

Hence, the extra electrons that the drop C contain are 5