Physics307L:People/Le/e/m
--Linh N Le 22:34, 28 October 2007 (CDT)
Purpose/Procedure
The purpose of this lab is to measure the ratio of the charge of an electron (e) to its mass.
We will send a beam of charged electrons perpendicularly through a magnetic field. The field will produce a force on the beam, bending it into a circle. By measuring the radius of the circle, we will be able to calculate the ratio of e/m.
For a more comprehensive look into this lab, I refer you to my notebook: Part 1 Part 2
Data
I will forgo the tedium of reporting all my measurements (as that can be found in the lab) and get right to the meat of the problem.
4 sets of data were taken, and the respective e/m ratios are:
SJK 01:08, 13 November 2007 (CST)
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- 3.2116e11 +/- 6.3934e09 C/kg
- 3.2246e11 +/- 7.7978e09 C/kg
- 4.5411e11 +/- 1.2047e10 C/kg
- 2.7461e11 +/- 8.7489e08 C/kg
The accepted value is: 1.76e11 C/kg
Errors
Comparing the values we got to the accepted values, I'm able to give relative % errors
%error set 1=82.5%
%error set 2=83.2%
%error set 3=158%
%error set 4=56.03%
Final Thoughts
SJK 01:10, 13 November 2007 (CST)
The data is precise, but very inaccurate. I would have to say that the apparatus has fundamental design flaws, although it itself if constructed properly.
The way of measuring the radius involves a high amount of error, since we must account for paralax.
Increasing the voltages supplied to the apparatus increases the accuracy of the data, but that has a cap before we overload the apparatus.