# 7.2 Electric potential and potential difference  (Page 3/12)

 Page 3 / 12

Check Your Understanding How many electrons would go through a 24.0-W lamp?

–2.00 C, ${n}_{e}=1.25\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}×\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{19}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{electrons}$

## The electron-volt

The energy per electron is very small in macroscopic situations like that in the previous example—a tiny fraction of a joule. But on a submicroscopic scale, such energy per particle (electron, proton, or ion) can be of great importance. For example, even a tiny fraction of a joule can be great enough for these particles to destroy organic molecules and harm living tissue. The particle may do its damage by direct collision, or it may create harmful X-rays, which can also inflict damage. It is useful to have an energy unit related to submicroscopic effects.

[link] shows a situation related to the definition of such an energy unit. An electron is accelerated between two charged metal plates, as it might be in an old-model television tube or oscilloscope. The electron gains kinetic energy that is later converted into another form—light in the television tube, for example. (Note that in terms of energy, “downhill” for the electron is “uphill” for a positive charge.) Since energy is related to voltage by $\text{Δ}U=q\text{Δ}V$ , we can think of the joule as a coulomb-volt.

## Electron-volt

On the submicroscopic scale, it is more convenient to define an energy unit called the electron-volt    (eV), which is the energy given to a fundamental charge accelerated through a potential difference of 1 V. In equation form,

$1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{eV}=\left(1.60\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}×\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{-19}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{C}\right)\left(1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{V}\right)=\left(1.60\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}×\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{-19}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{C}\right)\left(1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{J/C}\right)=1.60\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}×\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{10}^{-19}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{J}\text{.}$

An electron accelerated through a potential difference of 1 V is given an energy of 1 eV. It follows that an electron accelerated through 50 V gains 50 eV. A potential difference of 100,000 V (100 kV) gives an electron an energy of 100,000 eV (100 keV), and so on. Similarly, an ion with a double positive charge accelerated through 100 V gains 200 eV of energy. These simple relationships between accelerating voltage and particle charges make the electron-volt a simple and convenient energy unit in such circumstances.

The electron-volt is commonly employed in submicroscopic processes—chemical valence energies and molecular and nuclear binding energies are among the quantities often expressed in electron-volts. For example, about 5 eV of energy is required to break up certain organic molecules. If a proton is accelerated from rest through a potential difference of 30 kV, it acquires an energy of 30 keV (30,000 eV) and can break up as many as 6000 of these molecules $\left(30,000\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{eV}÷5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{eV}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{per molecule}=6000\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{molecules).}$ Nuclear decay energies are on the order of 1 MeV (1,000,000 eV) per event and can thus produce significant biological damage.

A closely wound search coil has an area of 4cm^2,1000 turns and a resistance of 40ohm. It is connected to a ballistic galvanometer whose resistance is 24 ohm. When coil is rotated from a position parallel to uniform magnetic field to one perpendicular to field,the galvanometer indicates a charge
Using Kirchhoff's rules, when choosing your loops, can you choose a loop that doesn't have a voltage?
how was the check your understand 12.7 solved?
Who is ISSAAC NEWTON
he's the father of 3 newton law
Hawi
he is Chris Issaac's father :)
Ethem
how to name covalent bond
Who is ALEXANDER BELL
LOAK
what do you understand by the drift voltage
what do you understand by drift velocity
Brunelle
nothing
Gamal
well when you apply a small electric field to a conductor that causes to add a little velocity to charged particle than usual, which become their average speed, that is what we call a drift.
graviton
drift velocity
graviton
what is an electromotive force?
It is the amount of other forms of energy converted into electrical energy per unit charge that flow through it.
Brunelle
How electromotive force is differentiated from the terminal voltage?
Danilo
in the emf power is generated while in the terminal pd power is lost.
Brunelle
what is then chemical name of NaCl
sodium chloride
Azam
sodium chloride
Brunelle
Sodium Chloride.
Ezeanyim
How can we differentiate between static point and test charge?
Wat is coplanar in physics
two point charges +30c and +10c are separated by a distance of 80cm,compute the electric intensity and force on a +5×10^-6c charge place midway between the charges
0.0844kg
Humble
what is the difference between temperature and heat
Heat is the condition or quality of being hot While Temperature is ameasure of cold or heat, often measurable with a thermometer
Abdul
Temperature is the one of heat indicators of materials that can be measured with thermometers, and Heat is the quantity of calor content in material that can be measured with calorimetry.
Gamma
the average kinetic energy of molecules is called temperature. heat is the method or mode to transfer energy to molecules of an object but randomly, while work is the method to transfer energy to molecules in such manner that every molecules get moved in one direction.
2. A brass rod of length 50cm and diameter 3mm is joined to a steel rod of the same length and diameter. What is the change in length of the combined rod at 250°c( degree Celsius) if the original length are 40°c(degree Celsius) is there at thermal stress developed at the junction? The end of the rod are free to expand (coefficient of linear expansion of brass = 2.0×10^-5, steel=1.2×10^-5k^1)
A charge insulator can be discharged by passing it just above a flame. Explain.
of the three vectors in the equation F=qv×b which pairs are always at right angles?