How To Find Number Of Excess Electrons

In 1909, Robert Millikan determined that the electron has a charge of 1.60x10^-19 Coulombs. He determined this by balancing the gravitational pull on oil droplets against the electric field needed to keep the droplets from falling. A single droplet would have multiple excess electrons, so the common divisor of the charge on multiple droplets gave the charge of a single electron. Derivative of this experiment, a common question of introductory physics students today is how many excess electrons are on a charged sphere if its total charge is found by experiment to be "x" Coulombs, assuming you already know a single electron's charge?

Step 1

Suppose you have determined the charge of an oil drop to be, say, 2.4 x 10^-18 Coulombs. Note that the caret '^' refers to exponentiation. For example, 10^-2 equals 0.01.

Step 2

Suppose also that you know in advance that the charge of an electron is 1.60x10^-19 Coulombs.

Step 3

Divide the total excess charge by the known charge of a single electron.

Continuing with the example above, 2.4 x 10^-18 divided by 1.60 x 10^-19 is the same as 2.4 / 1.60 times 10^-18 / 10^-19. Note that 10^-18 / 10^-19 is the same as 10^-18 * 10^19, which equals 10. 2.4/1.6 = 1.5. So the answer is 1.5 x 10, or 15 electrons.