Electron moles present in wire cross-section

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around calculating the number of moles of electrons present in a wire cross-section based on current and wire diameter. The initial calculations involve converting current in coulombs per second to moles using Avogadro's number. Participants emphasize the importance of using the correct area formula and converting measurements from centimeters to meters for accurate results. A common mistake noted is the confusion between diameter and radius when calculating the area. Ultimately, the correct approach involves dividing the calculated moles by the area to find moles per area per second.
JoeyBob
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Homework Statement
See image
Relevant Equations
I=C/t
So I know current is just coulombs/second. Electrons are also in the unit of coulombs, so I can get coulombs to cancel.

7.9C/s/1.602E-29C = 4.93133E29 1/s

Now I just need to get mol on top. There are 6.022E23 electron in a mol so 4.93133E29 1/s / 6.022E23 atoms/mol = 8.1889E5 mol/s.

Now my problem is that I don't know what to do with the diameter. My only hint is that the units also have m^2, which could imply that I need to multiply the above by area? So using A=pir^2 I would get an area of 0.5027 m^2. Obviously multiplying this value by the above value won't get me the right answer.

What am I missing here?
 

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They want to know the number of moles per area per second. It should be obvious that you divide by the area.
You need to convert the centimeters to meters in computing the area. The number you give for the area is way off.
 
Charles Link said:
They want to know the number of moles per area per second. It should be obvious that you divide by the area.
You need to convert the centimeters to meters in computing the area. The number you give for the area is way off.

Youre right, but even if I divide instead of multiply the area I still get the wrong answer. The answer is 1.63, but ill get 1629129.9. So its right but has too many digits it seems.
 
Okay i forgot to convert the cm too, but when I convert it to m and divide by area I get an answer that's even bigger and also wrong (4.07 E11)
 
The electron charge is 1.602E-19 .(not E-29).
Make sure you use the radius of the wire (rather than the diameter) in computing the area. =Edit=looks like you did. You then divide by the area. You should get the correct answer.
 
Last edited:
Charles Link said:
The electron charge is 1.602E-19 .(not E-29).
Make sure you use the radius of the wire (rather than the diameter) in computing the area. You should get the correct answer.

So then I get 8.1991 E-5for mol/s. Dividing by area still doesn't work for me.

0.4cm = 0.0004 m. A=pir^2 = 0.000000502.

0.000081889/0.000000502 = 163, which is too large by a factor of 100.
 
You would do better to use exponential notation. But the ## r=.004 ## m. I think everything then works.
 
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Charles Link said:
You would do better to use exponential notation. But the ## r=.004 ## m. I think everything then works.

Yeah I am dumb. cm is not mm.
 
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