Question

Question: imagine the decay of a very unusual particle that has a charge of Q=+24e. If it decays into 12 particles, 3 of which have electrical charges of 2e each, what is the collective charge of the other 9 particles?

Answer 1

Given,

The total charge of the particle, Q=+24e

The charges of each of the 3 particles, q=2e.

In order for the equation of the decay to be balanced, the total charge before and after the decay must be equal.

Therefore,

$Q=3q+Q_C$

Where Qc is the collective charge of the remaining 9 particles.

On rearranging the above equation,

$Q_C=Q-3q$

On substituting the known values in the above equation,

$\begin{gathered} Q_C=24e-3\times2e \\ =24e-6e \\ =18e \end{gathered}$

Therefore the collective charge of the rest of the particles is 18e