Oscillating electron

Consider a uniformly positively charged non conducting sphere of volume charge density ρ \rho . An electron is released from its surface.

Considering that the amplitude of the oscillations is less than the sphere's radius, find the time period of its periodic motion (in microseconds).

Details and Assumptions \textbf{Details and Assumptions}

  • ρ = 2 × 1 0 7 C / m 3 \rho = 2 \times 10^{-7} \ \text{C}/ \text{m}^3
  • m e = 9.1 × 1 0 31 kg m_e=9.1 \times 10^{-31} \ \text{kg}
  • ϵ 0 = 8.85 × 1 0 12 F / m \epsilon_0=8.85 \times 10^{-12} \ \text{F}/\text{m}
  • e e (charge on electron) = 1.6 × 1 0 19 C =-1.6 \times 10^{-19} \ \text{C}


The answer is 0.169.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Pratik Shastri
May 20, 2014

Consider that the electron is x x distance away from the sphere.

Now consider a spherical Gaussian surface of radius x x .

Applying Gauss's law, we have

ϕ = q e n c l o s e d ϵ 0 \phi=\frac {q_{enclosed}}{\epsilon_{0}}

E d A = q e n c l o s e d ϵ 0 \displaystyle\int E \cdot dA = \frac {q_{enclosed}}{\epsilon_{0}}

E 4 π x 2 = 4 3 π x 3 ρ ϵ 0 E \cdot 4 \pi x^2 = \frac{\frac {4}{3} \pi x^3\cdot \rho}{\epsilon_{0}}

So, the electric field E = ρ x 3 ϵ 0 E=\frac{\rho x}{3\epsilon_0}

Hence, the force on the electron when it is x x distance away from the center of the sphere

= e E = e ρ x 3 ϵ 0 -e \cdot E = \frac{-e \rho x}{3 \epsilon_0}

Now, F = m a F=ma .

So,

a = F m = e ρ x 3 ϵ 0 m e a=\frac{F}{m}= \frac{-e \rho x}{3 \epsilon_0 m_{e}}

Hence, the electron's motion is simple harmonic.

Comparing a = ω 2 x a=-\omega^2 x and a = e ρ x 3 ϵ 0 m e a= \frac{-e \rho x}{3 \epsilon_0 m_{e}} ,

ω = e ρ 3 ϵ 0 m e \omega = \sqrt{\frac{e \rho}{3 \epsilon_0 m_{e}}}

T = 2 π ω = 2 π 3 ϵ 0 m e e ρ T=\frac{2 \pi}{\omega}=2 \pi \sqrt{\frac{3 \epsilon_0 m_{e}}{e \rho}}

Substituting the values

m e = 9.1 × 1 0 31 k g m_e=9.1 \times 10^{-31}kg

ϵ 0 = 8.85 × 1 0 12 F m \epsilon_0=8.85 \times 10^{-12}\frac{F}{m}

e e (charge on electron) = 1.6 × 1 0 19 C =1.6 \times 10^{-19}C

And ρ = 2 × 1 0 7 C m 3 \rho=2 \times 10^{-7}\frac{C}{m^3} ,

We get T = 0.169 μ s T=\boxed{0.169 \mu s}

I got .1726. You might want to chck your calculation again. Also, there is hardly any difference between the two answers. But still got incorrect. -_-

Mahathir Ahmad - 6 years, 5 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...