1-1: Thomson Cathode Ray Tube Experiment

As scientists began to examine atoms, their first discovery was that they could extract negatively charged
particles from atoms. They called these particles electrons. In order to understand the nature of these
particles, scientists wanted to know how much charge they carried and how much they weighed. John
Joseph (J.J.) Thomson was a physics professor at the famous Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge
University. In 1897, Thomson showed that if you could measure how far a beam of electrons was bent in
an electric field and in a magnetic field, you could determine the charge-to-mass ratio (q/me) for the
particles (electrons). Knowing the charge-to-mass ratio (q/me) and either the charge on the electron or the
mass of the electron would allow you to calculate the other. Thomson could not obtain either in his
cathode ray tube experiments and had to be satisfied with just the charge-to-mass ratio.

1. Start Virtual ChemLab, select Atomic Theory, and then select Thomson Cathode Ray Tube
Experiment from the list of assignments. The lab will open in the Quantum laboratory.

2. What source is used in this experiment? Drag your cursor over to the source to identify it.
electron gun

What type of charge do electrons have? negative

What detector is used in this experiment? phosphor screen

3. Turn on the Phosphor Screen by clicking on the red/green light switch.

What do you observe? there is glowing green dot

The phosphor screen detects charged particles (such as electrons) and it glows momentarily at the
positions where the particles impact the screen.

4. It may be helpful to drag the lab window down and left and the phosphor screen window up and right
in order to minimize overlap. Push the Grid button on the phosphor screen, and set the Magnetic
Field to 30 T. (Click buttons above and below the digits in the meter to raise and lower the value.
Clicking between digits moves the decimal point.)

What happens to the spot from the electron gun on the phosphor screen?
The spot goes right

5. Set the Magnetic Field back to zero and set the Electric Field to 10 V.

What happens to the spot on the phosphor screen? the spot moves left

Where should the signal on the phosphor screen be if the electric and magnetic forces are balanced?
The center of the screen

6. Increase the voltage of the Electric Field so the spot is 5 cm left of center.
13 V
What voltage is required?

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7. Increase the magnetic field strength until the spot reaches the center of the screen.
44 µT
What magnetic field creates a magnetic force that balances the electric force?

Summarize your data.

deflected distance (d) electric field (V) magnetic field (B)

5 cm 13 V 44 µT

8. In a simplified and reduced form, the charge-to-mass ratio (q/me) can be calculated as follows:

 
q / me  5.0826  1012  V  d B 2

where V = the electric field in volts, d = the deflected distance from center in cm after applying just
the voltage, and B = magnetic field in T.

What is your calculated value for the charge-to-mass ratio for an electron (q/me)? 1.71 x 10 ^11

The modern accepted value is 1.76  1011.

Calculate your percent error as follows:

| your value  accepted value|

% Error   100
accepted value

% Error = 2.84%

9. You may want to repeat the experiment several times using different size deflections.

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