Engineering Physics II

Electron Charge to Mass Ratio (E/M) lab

 E/M Lab

The purpose of this lab is to use voltage and current readings, along with kinetic
energy, to determine the ratio of an electron’s charge to its mass.

The first step in the procedure is to measure and record the inner and outer
diameter of the coils that provide the magnetic field. Record the number of
turns for the coil, which is approximately 130 turns, Table 1. Next, turn on the
E/M machine and allow time for the machine to stabilize to zero. Once the
system warms up, adjust the voltage to 200. The blue stream of electrons will
appear. Adjust current to bend the beam so a circular path appears. Read the
measurement for diameter value. Now, record the voltage and corresponding
magnetic field current. Repeat this process for the proceeding voltages ranging
from 200 to 400. Now calculate the magnetic field at the center of the coils,
with the average coil radius, number of turns and the µo value. See Appendix 1
for data collected and magnetic field information. Then plot V / r 2 versus I2.
From the slope, determine the ratio E/M, Figure 1-5. See Table 2 for values used
to calculated final results, Table 3 calculations. Using the range in the slope,
calculate the range in your ratio of charge to mass for electrons, e/m.
Compare the experimental e/m with the uncertainty to accepted ratio of e/m.

Materials

 E/M machine in dark room

 Calculator
 Meter stick
 Notebook

Data/Calculations:

Table 1:

Red Coils Measurement

Inner diameter (m) 0.28
Outer diameter (m) 0.31
(0.28
average diameter +0.31)
(m) 2 0.30
(0.30)
average radius (m) 2 0.15
Number of turns (N) 130

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Table 2:

Permeability of Free space µ0 = 1.25664 x 10-6 N/A2

Radius of Coils a = .15 m

K Constant value calculated using the formula 7.79 x 10-4 T/A

( (N* µ0)/((5/4)3/2 * .15m))

Note: V/r2 = K* e/m * I2 (B varies with current)

Measured E/M = (2*slope)/K2

Charge of Electron e = 1.60 x 10-19 C

Mass of Electron m = 9.10 x 10-31 kg

Charge to mass ratio (Accepted E/M Value) e/m = 1.76 x 1011 C/kg

Note:

Accepted E/M value 1.60 x 10-19 C = 1.76 x 1011 c/kg

9.11x10-31 kg

Results:

The experiment provided 5 different graphs of Voltage/radius square versus

current squared. Each graph resulted in a slope used to calculate the E/M
value. See figures 1-5 for the graphs of the different voltages measured. The
uncertainty in e/m is determined by the uncertainty in voltage, radius, and current
measured. The percent error calculated for each accelerating voltage and current
measured to determine the measured E/M is listed in Table 3. The error is based on the
measured value for E/M minus the accepted value divided by the accepted value
times 100. Table 3 displays the overall calculated error as 2.39%. This error in data
analysis could be the result of many different factors. First, it is possible that the
earth’s magnetic field affected the results causing an error in data collection.
There may have also been environmental factors involved with the experiment
such as the temperature of the room. The temperature could affect the
electron beam or if the size of the coils varied slightly from changes in
temperature. Also, the E/M device’s angle may have slipped slightly preventing
a constant angle over the course of the experiment.

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Table 3:

Average
Voltage
Current
I
Coil
Beam
radius V/r^2 I^2
Magnetic
Field B slope
(K)^2
Constant
%
(A)
Radius
(m)
(m) (T) Measured
E/M
(T/A) Error
200 1.16 0.15 0.06 60491 1.35 0.000904 2.136E+11 64813 7.79E-04 19.00%
1.26 0.15 0.05 80000 1.59 0.000982
1.34 0.15 0.05 90539 1.80 0.001044
1.39 0.15 0.05 98765 1.93 0.001083
1.53 0.15 0.04 125000 2.34 0.001192
Average 1.34 0.15 0.05 90959 1.80 0.001041
250 1.30 0.15 0.06 82645 1.69 0.001013 1.875E+11 56880 8.08%
1.42 0.15 0.05 100000 2.02 0.001107
1.57 0.15 0.05 123457 2.46 0.001223
1.63 0.15 0.04 138408 2.66 0.001270
1.73 0.15 0.04 156250 2.99 0.001348
Average 1.53 0.15 0.05 120152 2.36 0.001192
300 1.40 0.15 0.06 99174 1.96 0.001091 1.661E+11 50402 -3.30%
1.54 0.15 0.05 115340 2.37 0.001200
1.64 0.15 0.05 132964 2.69 0.001278
1.72 0.15 0.05 148148 2.96 0.001340
1.82 0.15 0.04 166090 3.31 0.001418
Average 1.62 0.15 0.05 132343 2.66 0.001266
350 1.54 0.15 0.06 115702 2.37 0.001200 1.820E+11 55208 2.39%
1.70 0.15 0.05 140000 2.89 0.001325
1.86 0.15 0.05 172840 3.46 0.001449
2.06 0.15 0.04 218750 4.24 0.001605
1.96 0.15 0.04 193772 3.84 0.001527
Average 1.82 0.15 0.05 168213 3.36 0.001421
400 1.62 0.15 0.06 132231 2.62 0.001262 1.703E+11 51668 -3.30%
1.80 0.15 0.05 160000 3.24 0.001403
1.90 0.15 0.05 177285 3.61 0.001481
1.98 0.15 0.05 197531 3.92 0.001543
2.22 0.15 0.04 250000 4.93 0.001730
Average 1.90 0.15 0.05 183410 3.66 0.001484 1.839E+11 2.39%

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Figure 1:

Figure 2:

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Figure 3:

Figure 4:

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Figure 5:

Conclusion:

This experiment was designed to determine the electron charge to mass ratio.
By performing the experiment, there were some uncertainty discovered in the
calcuations of the electron charge to mass ratio. For instance, the uncertainty
involved with using the E/M deviced to measure the current, and voltage of the
projected beam. The uncertainity of the voltage is + - .01V. Current is +- .01
Amps. There is also some uncertaininty in the meter stick provided to measure
the radius of the coils. The meter stick uncertainity is +-.0005m. After the
identifying the uncertainity in analysis and equipment used , it was determined
that the electron charge to mass ratio is most accurately
reported as 1.8×10 11 ± 4.9×109 C/kg. The standard deviation is 4.9×109 C/kg. The
average percent error obtained was 2.39%. This is based on the average slope
of the best-fit line which produced the estimate of the electron charge to mass
ratio, 1.839×10 11 C/kg. This experiment allowed for the electron mass ratio to be
measured with slight errors. The experiment also proves that an electron is a
particle with mass and a charge.