Millikan determined the charge on the electron by studying the static charges on oil drops falling in an electric field (Figure 2.5). A student carried out this experiment using several oil drops for her measurements and calculated the charges on the drops. She obtained the following data: Droplet Calculated Charge (C) A 1.60 * 10-19 B 3.15 * 10-19 C 4.81 * 10-19 D 6.31 * 10-19 (c) What value (and to how many significant figures) should she report for the electronic charge?

Video transcript

Hello everyone. Today. We are being given the following data that was obtained by a student who performed the Millikan oil drop experiment. And we are given five different values and asked to calculate the value for the charge that the students should report. So this question is essentially asking for the average, the students should report the average. And so if we calculate that We get all the numbers in here we get 4.51 times 10 to the negative plus 6.31 times 10 to the negative Plus 3.2 times tenser than negative 19 Plus 3.21 Times 10 to the -19 Plus 9. times 10 to the -19. And since we're taking the average we divide this entire thing by five And this gives us an answer of 5.40 times 10 to the -19 C or cool them which is the unit for charge. I hope this helped. And until next time.