any possible answers?

Thread Starter

c1rcu1ts

Joined Oct 19, 2013
62
lecturer put this as a bonus question...

A current constituted of a single electron travelling through the centre of a conductor is being studied by a first year engineering student.. The conductor branches into two pathways of equal resistance 1 ohm: Path A and Path B. What do you think the voltage developed across each path should be?
 
Last edited:

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,979
Yes, a single electron can constitute a current. There are devices in which the capacitance is so small that charge of a single electron is sufficient to raise the voltage enough to stop further current flow until that electron is gated off the capacitor.

The question, though, is probably not really answerable. That depends to some degree on the type of "class" you are talking about. A Circuit I course and a Modern Quantum Physics course would treat this question very differently.

A Circuits course is based on certain underlying assumptions that permit the use of Kirchhoff's Laws as the primary basis for analysis. These assumption do not hold if you are talking about situations in which the discrete, quantized nature of electric charge becomes relevant.

Furthermore, for the circuits that would be discussed in a Circuits I course, the noise current in the resistors would make detecting anything related to a 1e-/s current impossible.
 

shteii01

Joined Feb 19, 2010
4,644
lecturer put this as a bonus question...

A current constituted of a single electron travelling through the centre of a conductor is being studied by a first year engineering student.. The conductor branches into two pathways of equal resistance 1 ohm: Path A and Path B. What do you think the voltage developed across each path should be?
The current thing is just to throw you off.

The question is the voltage. It is zero.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Schroedinger's cat:D
Hold both wires over a coffee can and see which one the electron comes out of.
 

studiot

Joined Nov 9, 2007
4,998
The question itself is flawed.

What will the pathways be made of?

In relation to the single electron an assemblage of atoms is too large, and the impedance of free space is 370 ohms.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Flawed question. I agree. Voltage compared to where? You always need a second point to measure voltage. Maybe the lecturer told the OP, but nobody told me. Even if you did, I wouldn't know the voltage of a single electron. The fact that it is moving makes current, but that doesn't establish what voltage is pushing it.

There. That's a farmers eye view of big city education.:D
 

bwilliams60

Joined Nov 18, 2012
1,442
It takes 6.24 billion billion electrons passing a given point in one second to = 1 ampere. You could surmise that you know the amperage is 1/6.24 billion billion to obtain your amperage which is next to nothing or as close as you can be. You have the resistance of 1 ohm so technically because you have two quantites, you should be able to find the third by using Ohm's Law. But since electrons can't split, how does it choose which pathway it takes, and it doesn't matter what it is made of, it's resistance is stated. I would like to hear the answer on this one.
 

studiot

Joined Nov 9, 2007
4,998
It takes 6.24 billion billion electrons passing a given point in one second to = 1 ampere. You could surmise that you know the amperage is 1/6.24 billion billion to obtain your amperage which is next to nothing or as close as you can be. You have the resistance of 1 ohm so technically because you have two quantites, you should be able to find the third by using Ohm's Law. But since electrons can't split, how does it choose which pathway it takes, and it doesn't matter what it is made of, it's resistance is stated. I would like to hear the answer on this one.
How many free electrons are there already in a conductor of 1Ω resistance?

I repeat the question is flawed.
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
Seems straightforward to me.

If there is 1A flowing down a conductor, and gets to a fork, it could be quite possible the 1A flows entirely down one path after the fork, giving a result of 1A in one path and 0A in the other path.

Now with 1A current, it is also possible that 0.5A flows in each path after the fork. What the examiner has done is eliminate that situation by using the fact that a single electron must travel 100% down one path and 0% down the other path, which simplifies the problem.
 
Top