Question

(I) How many electrons make up a charge of\( - {\bf{48}}{\bf{.0}}\;{\bf{\mu C}}\)?

Short answer

The number of required electrons are \(3.0 \times {10^{14}}\;{\rm{electrons}}\).

Step-by-step solution

Understanding the electric charge

Electric charge is a basic property of matter that causes small objects to attract or repel each other. The charge is quantised in nature and the electronic charge is the basic unit of charge.

The net quantity of charge is given as:

\(Q = ne\) … (i)

Here, n is the number of electrons and e is the electronic charge.

Given Data

The net charge is, \(Q = - 48\;{\rm{\mu C}}\)

Determination of the total number of electrons

From equation (i), the number of the electron is given as:

\(n = \frac{Q}{e}\)

Substitute the values in the above expression.

\(\begin{aligned}{c}n = \left( {\frac{{ - 48 \times {{10}^{ - 6}}\;{\rm{C}}}}{{ - 1.6 \times {{10}^{ - 19}}\;{\rm{C}}}}} \right)\\n = 3 \times {10^{14}}\;{\rm{electrons}}\end{aligned}\)

Thus, the number of required electrons are\(3.0 \times {10^{14}}\;{\rm{electrons}}\).