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Abelard
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Homework Statement
In a typical household current, the electrons in the wire may have a drift speed of 1.3×10−4 m/s. Actual household current is not a direct current, but instead is an alternating (oscillating) current. (If you have ever received an electric shock from an outlet, you have felt this rapid alternation as a painful vibration. A safe way to see the alternation is to wave your fingers rapidly in front of a fluorescent light, and observe the stroboscopic stutter-silhouette that they form.) You can model the motion of each conduction electron as simple harmonic motion, with a frequency of 60 Hz. The drift speed is the maximum speed, what the speed would build up to if the electric field were applied continually, as in the case of direct current. What is the approximate amplitude of an electron's oscillation?
Homework Equations
1/T=f or 1/f=T
The Attempt at a Solution
So 1/60Hz=0.1667sec = T Then period is a time of complete cycle, so 0.1667/4sec is one amplitude. Then 0.0041667sec * drift speed = 1.3e-4* 0.004167=5.42e-7 m.
But that wasn't the answer.