Question

A mass has a charge of q = 5e, where e is the charge on an electron. What is the charge on the mass?

1) 5e
2) 10e
3) 15e
4) 20e

Answer 1

The charge on the mass with q = 5e is 5 times the charge of a single electron, which is -8.00 × 10⁻⁹ C, thus the answer is 1) 5e.

Step-by-step explanation:

The charge of an electron is a fundamental constant represented by qe and is approximately -1.60 × 10⁻¹⁹ Coulombs (C). Since charge is quantized, every charge is an integer multiple of this fundamental charge unit. Therefore, when a mass has a charge of q = 5e, it implies that the charge on the mass is 5 times the charge of a single electron.

The calculation to find the total charge on the mass would be:

• q = 5 × qe
• q = 5 × (-1.60 × 10⁻⁹ C)
• q = -8.00 × 10⁻⁹ C

The negative sign indicates that the charge is negative, as it is the charge of electrons. The correct answer to the question is 1) 5e.