Question

Consider a bee with the mean electric charge found in the experiment. this charge represents roughly how many missing electrons?

Answer 1

A charge of -2.50 C correlates to roughly 1.56×10ⁱ¹ missing electrons, a calculation derived by dividing the total charge by the charge per electron. This shows that a significant number of electrons can be involved in generating macroscopic charges.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks about the number of missing electrons that would correspond to a certain electric charge measured in an experiment with a bee. Given the total charge and the charge per electron, the calculation provided indicates that a charge of -2.50 Coulombs (C) corresponds to 1.56×10ⁱ¹ electrons when divided by the elementary charge, which is -1.60×10⁻¹¹ C/e-. This implies that there are approximately 1.56×10ⁱ¹ missing electrons, which is close to a billion electrons.

For context, this number is quite small compared to the number of atoms in a drop of ink, demonstrating how vast the number of elementary particles such as electrons can be even in microscopic systems. The fundamental unit of charge (e), the charge of an electron (-e), is essential to understand the relationship between electric charge and the amount of electrons needed to constitute that charge.

Answer 2

Every electron has a charge of 1.6 x 10⁻¹⁹ Coulombs; therefore, if the charge on the bee is divided by this charge, the number of missing electrons will be calculated. It will be a whole number since charge is quantized.